Copper advanced after U.S. new-home sales topped estimates and the Federal Reserve maintained stimulus efforts, bolstering the demand outlook for base metals. Tin reached a record and nickel climbed to a nine-month high. Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange gained as much as 1.5 percent to $9,474 a metric ton and traded at $9,448 at 3:33 p.m. in Singapore, extending yesterday’s 0.9 percent gain. The price reached a record $9,781 a ton on Jan. 19 on prospects for a global supply deficit. “The U.S. economic recovery seems to be slowly gaining traction and this is helping to offset the negative sentiment arising from the possibility of a slowdown in China, which remains the market’s biggest risk,” Liu Yong, an analyst at Bohai Securities Co., said from Beijing. April-delivery metal on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose for the first time in three days, increasing as much as 1.3 percent to 71,740 yuan ($10,891) a ton, and ended the day at 71,700 yuan. Futures on the Comex in New York climbed 0.9 percent to $4.3055 a pound. New-home purchases in the U.S. rose to a 329,000 annual pace, figures from the Commerce Department showed yesterday. The median estimate of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 300,000 rise. Builders are the biggest copper users in the U.S., the second-largest consumer after China. Fed policy makers yesterday maintained plans to buy $600 billion of Treasuries, easing concerns that a withdrawal of stimulus will hamper the recovery. The expansion is “continuing, though at a rate that has been insufficient to bring about a significant improvement in labor-market conditions,” the Federal Open Market Committee said after a two-day meeting. China Growth Global investors are bracing for the end of China’s relentless economic growth, with 45 percent saying they expect a financial crisis there within five years. An additional 40 percent anticipate a Chinese crisis after 2016, according to a quarterly poll of 1,000 Bloomberg customers who are investors, traders or analysts. China yesterday increased the minimum downpayment for second homes and asked local governments to boost land supply, adding to measures to limit the risk of asset bubbles. Other steps since April include curbing loans for third-home purchases, increasing down-payment requirements and raising mortgage rates. China’s growth accelerated to a more-than-forecast 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter even after the government ordered banks to set aside more reserves six times in 2010 and boosted interest rates twice to prevent the economy from overheating. Tin Record Tin in London rose to an all-time high of $28,900 a ton, surpassing yesterday’s peak of $28,775, as supply of the metal used in soldering and packaging is expected to lag behind demand this year through 2013. Tin is up for sixth day, the longest winning streak since September. The best performer last year of the six principal base metals traded in London, tin may reach $40,000 as demand climbs, new mines take longer than expected to start output and ore quality drops, according to Malaysia Smelting Corp. Nickel gained as much as 0.5 percent to $26,640 a ton, the highest price since April, before trading little changed at $26,519 a ton. Aluminum advanced 0.7 percent to $2,403 a ton, lead climbed 0.4 percent to $2,386.50 a ton, while zinc dropped 0.6 percent to $2,265 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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