Copper rises after a three-day losing streak

After plunging for three days in a row, copper prices rose on Friday amid broadly weaker dollar and supply concerns. The Grasberg mine in Indonesia will stay closed for three months due to an independent probe, following fatal accidents that recently occurred. A tunnel collapse on May 14 killed 28 workers and another one died on June 1 in a separate accident.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, copper futures for July delivery rose 0.20% for the day and stood at $3.326 a pound at 9:27 GMT.

Copper prices were supported by weakening of the greenback, which fell to a three-month low amid worse than expected U.S. economic data and somewhat controversial, but overall positive news from the Euro zone.

In the U.S. on Thursday, Initial Jobless Claims mismatched expectations by a little and fell to 346 000 for the week ending June 2, down from 357 000 the preceding week, but still 1 000 more than the 345 000 decrease expectation. This further pushed the dollar down, increasing prices of dollar-priced commodities.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, German factory orders showed on Thursday worse than anticipated readings on both annual and monthly basis. However, Bank of England decided not to tamper with its monetary stimulus program and leave it at 375 billion GBP. England’s central bank also decided to leave its base interest rate intact at 0.50%. Same decision was taken by the European Central Bank.

Positive news in the single-currency bloc have been rolling out today as well. Manufacturing in Holland showed positivism and contracted less than expected in April. Spain and Norways Industrial Production index also marked improvements, surpassing expectations. Norways Manufacturing Production rose by 2.6% in April, compared to a revised 0.4% decline in March and above forecasts of 0.3%. Great Britains Visible Trade Balance deficit declined more than expected, followed by a decrease in the countrys Trade Balance Non EU, which also went ahead of forecasts. UKs Consumer Inflationary Expectation met anticipations. Germanys Industrial Production is yet to be announced at 9:00 GMT.

Copper prices, as all other dollar-priced commodities, will be strongly influenced by the U.S. labor department data, due for release later today. Investors will be looking into the Change in Non-Farm Payrolls, Average Hourly Earnings and the Unemployment Rate indicators, due at 12:30 GMT, which will shed some light on the health of the U.S. economy, thus dampening or sharpening expectations about Fed’s monetary stimulus program.

Copper prices have been boosted by supply concerns as well. Fatal accidents that killed 29 people in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia caused the mine to be shut down for three months, so that an independent probe takes place.

Will Yun, a commodities analyst at Hyundai Futures Corp. said for Bloomberg: “Concerns about curbed supply from the Grasberg mine remain at a time when we see some signs of recovering demand in China. Copper premiums in China are rising, meaning demand there is solid.”