Copper Back Above $2.60 Before China Economic Data

Copper led most industrial metals higher after better-than-forecast economic growth in China, the world’s largest consumer.  Gross domestic product rose 7.4 percent in 2014 from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in Beijing, beating the 7.3 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Industrial production last month grew 7.9 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 7.4 percent forecast.

“The industrial production number would be taken positively by the metal markets,” said Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “It was above expectations and certainly is conducive to continued growth and recovery in metals consumption.”  The International Monetary Fund cut its 2015 global growth forecast to 3.5 percent from an earlier estimate of 3.8 percent and trimmed its China outlook to 6.8 percent from 7.1 percent.

Copper for delivery in three months climbed as much as 1 percent to $5,730 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange and was trading at $5,717.50 a metric ton at 11:19 a.m. in Hong Kong. The metal fell 0.8 percent to settle at $5,672 a ton on Monday, sliding the first time in three days. Prices slumped 9.2 percent so far this year.

Bloomberg

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