ATYANA SHUMSKY From: Dow Jones Newswires November 26, 2011 8:18AM
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COPPER futures this morning ended at a five-week low amid ongoing worries about Europe's debt crisis.
Market participants remain focused on political developments in Europe, as leaders there struggle to stem the spread of sovereign debt problems to larger economies.
Copper for December delivery, the most-active contract, settled down US0.90 cents, or 0.3 per cent, at $US3.2700 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Thinly traded November-delivery copper fell US0.95c, or 0.3 per cent, to settle at $US3.2680 a pound.
The Comex floor ended at 12pm US Eastern Standard Time and was closed Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving Day holiday.
An upbeat US stockmarket gave copper prices a boost, with copper futures briefly popping into positive territory. The Standard & Poor's 500 index had touched a high of 1172.66, as stock prices bounced in the absence of bad news from Europe, before ending down 3.12 points at1158.67.
"The market came back nicely from its early lows, some of it seemed to be linked to stocks," said Stephen Platt, an analyst with Archer Financial Services.