Mining Profits...Investing In Industrial Metals

Copper futures firmed in Shanghai after better-than-expected U.S. employment data helped to ease concern that slowing economic growth in the U.S. and China might translate into reduced demand for the industrial metal.

U.S. employers added more jobs than predicted in November, showing the economy's resilience as housing and manufacturing slump, a government report showed last week. Copper has been under pressure from signs of slowing growth in the U.S. and China, the world's biggest users of the metal used in wires and pipes.

``Any good sign in the U.S. economy may lend strength to copper,'' Wu Bowen, a trader at Shanghai Jinpeng Futures Co., said today.

Copper for delivery in February fell as much as 130 yuan, or 0.2 percent, before recovering to settle 60 yuan up at 63,690 yuan ($8,129) a ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. The contract has dropped 23 percent since May 15 when it touched record high of 84,100 yuan.

Metal for immediate delivery in Changjiang, Shanghai's biggest spot market, traded little changed between 65,200 and 67,400 yuan a ton today.

Investment growth in China's power sector, which accounts for half of the country's copper consumption, has slowed for the third consecutive year this year, Wu said, citing official statistics he obtained. House-building, which accounts for half of U.S. copper consumption, dropped to a six-year low in October, U.S. data shows.

Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange traded $10 up at $6,890 a ton at 3:23 p.m. Shanghai time.