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SHANGHAI: Shanghai copper firmed on Friday tracking slight gains in London prices in the previous session following the release of positive initial jobless claims data from the United States.
Caution ruled with the London Metal Exchange closed until Tuesday for the Easter holiday and with U.S. nonfarm payrolls numbers due later in the day and key Chinese trade data out next week.
The most active July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange inched up 1 percent to 60,020 yuan ($9,500) per tonne by its midday close, after Thursday's 0.7 percent drop on the ShFE and a modest 0.1 percent uptick on the LME.
“It's a quiet trading day with only slight movements expected in copper prices,” said Orient Futures Derivatives Director Andy Du.
“In the longer term, signs point to a slight downturn. I hear of bonded warehouse stocks flowing towards LME warehouses due to weaker spot demand for copper in China now. But any copper price falls will not be drastic since the Chinese government seems to be leaning towards monetary loosening,” he added.
Lending support to sentiment were initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States. The figure dropped to the lowest level in nearly four years last week, according to a government report that showed ongoing healing in the labor market.
A more important employment report on U.S. nonfarm payrolls will be released later in the day.
Economists polled by Reuters expect these figures to show the world's largest economy adding 203,000 jobs last month, representing a fourth straight month of solid job creation and the longest stretch of monthly employment gains topping 200,000 since 1999.
The Shanghai base metals complex was up 0.3 percent collectively although the euro is poised to post its worst week in nearly four months.
The currency is languishing a little above a three-week low against the dollar on Friday on worries about rising Spanish debt yields.
