Reuters reported that London copper was steady and set to log a second week of gains after recent data fuelled hope that the Chinese and US economies have finally turned a corner but the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States drained liquidity.
Business surveys showed that Chinese and US factories returned to growth last month bringing better news for the world economy although the euro zone economy is on course for its deepest downturn since early 2009.
US manufacturing grew at its quickest pace in 5 months while China's vast manufacturing sector expanded for the first time in 13 months, the latest purchasing managers' indexes showed.
Mr Judy Zhu an analyst with Standard Chartered in Shanghai said that "We got a positive PMI number and we'll see a slight rebound from here but I don't think copper prices can explode, as they are not fundamentally supported. Hedge funds and commodity trading houses are trying to stay neutral. Lots of them think next year will be another Range bound year and another difficult year for investors to make money."
Three month copper on the London Metal Exchange traded at USD 7,729, up 0.18% per tonne by 0712 GMT after small gains in the previous session. Prices were set to close the week up 1.6% but anaemic global growth has kept them more than 8 percent below a high of USD 8,422 hit in September.
China is the world's top copper consumer, accounting for 40% of demand last year. But weak domestic demand is expected to push its stockpiles beyond this month's record high of above 1 million tonnes.
The most traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange finished flat at CNY 56,090 per tonne. Copper's gains were also reflected in sharemarkets. European stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Friday with investors betting on a pick up in the pace of the global economic recovery and the release of the next tranche of aid for Greece on Monday.
A positive euro lent support to prices, standing up more than 1% from last Friday's close, on optimism that a funding deal will be agreed by Monday for debt choked Greece. A weaker dollar makes commodities priced in the greenback cheaper for holders of other currencies.