Shanghai copper falls

Chinese copper contracts dipped on Friday on rising supply and losses in London as the market awaited US jobs data for clues about the fate of its economy.
Dealers said it was difficult to predict the course that metals prices would take following a series of record highs in 2006 on tight supply and firm demand.
"It's hard to say where the market will go. The supply situation is very supportive, but at the same time prices have run ahead of themselves and there is a very real fear that they will fall off," Andrew Harrington, commodity analyst at ANZ Resources said. Slowing US manufacturing sector, a weak housing market, skittish consumers and the risk of recession are making investors pause.
But the negative data was balanced earlier this week by an unexpected acceleration in the US service sector.
The Institute for Supply Management's services index rose to 58.9, from 57.1 in October and beating Wall Street's forecast for a decline to 56.0. Attention on Friday will turn to US non-farm payrolls data for November, with forecasts expecting a rise of 110,000 in the government report, according to a Reuters poll, more than last month's 92,000.
"There are the employment figures due out in the United States today, so people are probably selling off positions because of that," said a Shanghai-based trader. "But to trade on one number is really like clutching at straws," said the trader pointing to strong demand from countries like China, the world's number-one copper consumer.
Volumes were expected to moderate in coming weeks ahead of the vacation season, thinning liquidity and exaggerating price moves. Shanghai spot price prices ranged between 65,100 yuan and 65,400 yuan, down 300 yuan from the previous day. Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange had steadied to $6,895 a tonne, against $6,890 at the London close on Thursday when it hit a two-week low at $6,806.
LME-monitored copper stocks have steadily swelled to around 160,000 tonnes from little more than 25,000 tonnes in July last year. Zinc edged down to $4,285, down from $4,290 at the close on Thursday, when it slipped more than 3 percent to a two-week nadir of $4,240 as stocks at LME warehouses rose for the third consecutive day. Aluminium for three-month delivery was mostly steady lower at $2,819 against the close of $2,820 a tonne on Thursday.