Copper touches two-week low

Copper hit a two-week low on Wednesday as the dollar rebounded and nervousness over global central bank policy persisted, with China's state planner calling for policy easing but not specifying when. The dollar recovered from six-week lows after data showed the US private sector added more jobs than expected in July.
If Friday's more comprehensive jobs data confirms the trend, it could make the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates later this year. A strong dollar makes dollar-priced metals costlier for non-US investors.
Outside the United States, investors remain nervous that central banks are running out of ammunition to support flagging growth.
China's top economic planner called for the central bank to cut interest rates and bank reserve requirements "at the appropriate time", disappointing investors who had discounted the possibility of a cut in the near term.
"There are worries about most (global) economies but China has reasonable (metals) demand. There's been a surge in home sales and construction starts are up. Essentially we're looking at a modest (copper) supply surplus this year so pricing should remain steady," said Michael Dixon, director at AME Group.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange ended down 0.3 percent at $4,875 a tonne, having earlier hit its lowest since July 12 at $4,820. The metal has lost 1 percent so far this week, after steadying in the two prior weeks.
Metals have been capped this week by weak factory demand and persistent worries over China, which consumes nearly half the world's copper.
Growth in China's services sector cooled in July, with companies shedding staff for first time in four months.
Pointing to more supply, Rio Tinto confirmed it wants to expand copper output even after it reported a 47 percent slump in first-half profit to its weakest in 12 years.
Japan's Mitsui said the Caserones copper mine in Chile was currently running at around 80 percent utilisation and that it aimed to further improve its competitiveness.
Zinc ended down 0.1 percent at $2,273 while nickel reversed earlier losses to close up 0.1 percent at $10,735.
"Overhead resistance continues to cap the upside, even mighty zinc and nickel are pulling back (but) on balance, prices are generally holding up ... (suggesting) underlying buying is fairly buoyant," said FastMarkets. Lead closed down 1 percent at $1,805, aluminium ended up 1 percent at $1,641 while tin closed down 0.4 percent at $17,925.