LONDON: Copper prices were steady on Monday as the market balanced a weaker dollar against persisting weak demand signals from top metals consumer China.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was little changed at $9,953 a metric ton by 1015 GMT after touching a three-week peak on Friday.

“For copper, the long and medium-term picture look highly supportive, but there are a lot of question marks about high inventory levels,” said WisdomTree commodity strategist Nitesh Shah.

“The market is looking for some strong signals about more support from the government at the plenum meeting this month. It looks like we could be in a range-bound situation until we get a clear catalyst for prices to rally.”

Investors are hoping that additional stimulus measures will be announced at China’s key third plenum meeting on July 15-18.

Lacklustre demand in China has led to an inventory build-up, with deliverable stocks in SHFE warehouses not far from a four-year peak touched last month.

Copper hits three-week high on interest rate hopes

A survey by Shanghai Metals Market showed an unexpected decline in copper cable and wire producers’ operation rates last week.

The most-traded August copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange shed 0.3% to 79,930 yuan ($10,995.25) a ton.

A weaker dollar, however, offered support, making dollar-priced commodities less expensive for buyers using other currencies.

The dollar slipped after data on Friday showed U.S. job growth slowed marginally in June while the unemployment rate rose, boosting bets that the Federal Reserve could begin cutting interest rates in September.

In other metals, LME aluminium and lead were both little changed at $2,536.50 and $2,238 a ton respectively, zinc shed 0.6% to $2,982.50, nickel rose 0.3% to $17,400 and tin was up 0.9% at $34,170.