| Copper rose to a two-week high on speculation that a $700 billion plan to help U.S. financial companies will revive growth and spur demand for metals.
Copper has gained for three straight sessions as leaders in Congress considered Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's bid to cleanse lenders of toxic assets. Commodities have rallied on the improved economic growth outlook, with the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials gaining as much as 3.4 percent.
''The market is reacting to the fact that the government is taking action and doing something to help the economy,'' said Gijsbert Groenewegen, a fund manager at Gold Arrow Capital Management in New York.
Copper futures for December delivery gained 7.85 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $3.255 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division. Earlier, the price jumped as much as 4 percent to $3.303 a pound, the highest for a most-active contract since Sept. 4.
The government will spend ''hundreds of billions'' to rid lenders of troubled assets, after earlier efforts failed to revive the financial markets, Paulson said on Sept. 19.
''The recently announced industry bailout has changed the commodities landscape,'' Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global Ltd. in Darien, Connecticut, said today in a research note. Copper's rally ''may have some legs to it.''
The government's move may spur advances for commodities through the end of the year, said Chip Hanlon, who helps oversee $1.5 billion at Delta Global Advisors in Huntington Beach, California.
'Renewed Optimism'
''There's a renewed sense of optimism for an economic recovery,'' Hanlon said in an interview last week. ''It is time to start looking at the commodity spectrum again.''
The prospect for a rally comes after the worst commodity rout in five decades. The CRB Index still is down 20 percent since June 30, heading for its worst quarter since at least 1956, Bloomberg data show.
Copper also gained today as declining inventories signaled rising demand for the metal used in pipes and wires, Meir of MF Global said.
Stockpiles monitored by the London Metal Exchange tumbled 1.5 percent to 206,700 metric tons today. That's the biggest one-day drop since April 18.
On the LME, copper for delivery in three months gained $190, or 2.7 percent, to $7,250 a ton ($3.29 a pound). The price is up 8.6 percent this year.
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