Copper rebounds from 18-month low on bargain buying, Goldman upgrade

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                     Copper futures were up nearly 3% on Wednesday, as investors returned to the market to seek cheap valuations following the previous session’s plunge to the lowest level since October 2011.

Copper prices found further support after Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs said they expect prices of the industrial metal to rebound in the near-term.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, copper futures for May delivery traded at USD3.162 a pound during European morning trade, up 2.3% on the day.

New York-traded copper prices rose by as much as 3% earlier in the session to hit a daily high of USD3.188 a pound.

In a report published earlier in the day, Goldman Sachs analysts said they expect a rebound in copper prices over the next three months, after it underperformed other metals the past month. 

"An improvement in sentiment towards demand, with the backdrop of reasonable copper price fundamentals in the near term should see prices move higher, especially in the context of significant short positioning in the market at present," they said in a note.

On Tuesday, copper futures fell 1.4% to hit a low of USD3.059 a pound, the weakest level since October 20, 2011, after data showed that manufacturing activity in China expanded at a slower rate in April.

China’s HSBC Flash Purchasing Managers Index, the earliest indicator of the country's industrial activity, fell to a two-month low of 50.5 in April from a final reading of 51.6 in March.

China is the world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for almost 40% of world consumption last year.

Copper prices have been under heavy selling pressure in recent sessions, as investors exited the market amid worries about the economic outlook in top copper consumers China and the U.S.

Prices of the red metal are down more than 23% since hitting a recent high of USD3.978 a pound hit in February 2012, meeting the standard for a bear market.

Elsewhere on the Comex, gold for June delivery rallied 1.1% to trade at USD1,424.85 a troy ounce, while silver for May delivery rose 0.9% to trade at USD23.02 a troy ounce. Courtesy : Investing.com