Shanghai copper down

Shanghai Futures Exchange copper pared early losses to trade down 0.2 percent at 34,810 yuan ($5,293) a tonne on Wednesday after yuan weakness helped to shore up China's trade balance in December, allowing traders to take profits on short positions as selling in the market slowed. A move by China's central bank to halt the yuan's steep deterioration also breathed calm into the country's stock markets and quelled some of the jitters in commodities.
However, with China's economy still struggling, selling was expected to resume. "We will see more price weakness in 2016, but a bottoming out process will likely take place during the second half of the year," said US-based analyst Ed Meir of INTL FCSTONE. Meir said that while demand from China was still struggling, low prices across metals and oil would force producers to cut output, sowing the seeds for a recovery later in the year. China's imports of copper in December rose 15.2 percent from the month before to 530,000 tonnes, as low prices spurred bargain hunting, but were down by 0.3 percent for the whole of the year, customs data showed. "China's commodity imports surged across the board as low prices induced opportunistic buying," said ANZ in a note.