SYDNEY: London copper slipped on Tuesday from two-week peaks hit the session before after comments by the Federal Reserve fuelled worries over global growth, disturbing a fragile calm after robust Chinese economic data.
China posted a surprisingly strong trade performance in September, soothing worries over a slowdown in the world's top metals user.
It also logged a nearly 15 percent jump in copper imports.
"The follow through from yesterday's trade data looks a little bit weak.
We need to see another month of that type of growth to really be confident that it is really a restocking trend, rather than opportunistic buys ahead of China's holiday," said analyst Daniel Hynes of ANZ in Sydney. China, which accounts for around 45 percent of refined copper demand, had a week of national day holidays in early October. "Still, I would say the selling has been overdone.
The longs are looking for any opportunity to build some initial positions - but certainly no follow through at the moment," he said.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange had slipped 0.2 percent to $6,696 a tonne by 0110 GMT from the previous session when it tipped its highest since Sept. 30 at $6,737 a tonne.
Prices are grinding upwards from five-month lows of $6,600 a tonne touched on Oct. 2.
China's copper imports surged 14.7 percent from the previous month in September, hitting a 5-month high, after importers increased term shipments on an expected rise in seasonal demand.
The most-traded December copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 0.6 percent to 47,830 yuan($7,812) a tonne.
The Fed should err on the side of caution in its coming decision about when to raise interest rates for fear of upending the US recovery in a weak world economy, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said on Monday.
Reflecting expectations of ample copper supply next year, the world's top copper producer Codelco will offer its customers in Europe premiums of $112 per tonne in 2015, unchanged from last year, sources said on Monday.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc's Indonesian unit can resume open-pit mining at its Grasberg complex, one of the world's biggest copper mines, after it agreed to improve safety following a fatal accident last month, a government official said on Monday.
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