BEIJING: London copper turned south on Friday and was on course for a third straight weekly drop after data showed China's industrial production slowed last month, denting demand prospects for the metal that is facing a 15 percent decline this year.
China's November industrial output rose the least in nearly three years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, underlining rising risks to the economy as China works to defuse a trade dispute with the United States.
The data "sent the Asian equities on a downward path along with the Dow futures and that sentiment is passing on into metals prices," Malcolm Freeman, director of Kingdom Futures, said in a note.
Over the remaining two weeks of the year, with most industrial clients shutting down for holidays, "the markets will be left to funds and algorithms to be the main drivers," he added.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper fell by 0.8 percent to $6105 a tonne by 0728 GMT, erasing small gains from the previous session, and was set to end the week 0.3 percent lower. Prices are down 15.5 percent year-to-date and set for their first annual fall since 2015, when they declined by a quarter to below $5,000.
* SHFE COPPER: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper eased by 0.6 percent to 48,890 yuan ($7,093.83) a tonne when market closed at 0700 GMT. Open interest across copper contracts is the lowest in 22 months, signalling a lack of conviction over price direction as the year draws to a close.
* CHINA OUTLOOK: China is on track to hit its 2018 GDP growth target of around 6.5 percent, but the economy faces more external uncertainties next year, a spokesman for China's statistics bureau said on Friday.
* JAPAN ECONOMY: Japanese business confidence and capital expenditure plans held steady from three months ago, a closely-watched central bank survey showed, a sign companies weren't significantly worried about escalating trade frictions and global growth concerns.
* CHINA ALUMINIUM: China's primary aluminium output rebounded in November after three straight months of decline, defying a fall in prices for the metal used in everything from construction to making cars.
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MARKETS NEWS
* Asian shares tumbled on Friday after China reported a set of weak data, fanning fresh worries of a sharp slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy and leaving investors fretting over the wider impact of a yet unresolved Sino-U.S. trade dispute.
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