London copper holds ground after brighter U.S. jobs report

Reuters - London copper steadied on Monday after a solid U.S. jobs report buoyed hopes that an economic recovery is taking root in the world's top economy, although a stronger dollar kept gains in check.

The data followed news of an expansion in China's manufacturing sector in June, which also underpinned demand for metals.

"Although (China's) domestic market is weakening because of seasonality, it has not shown a very strong weakness, and also because of the improving macro sentiment ... people have seen some signs from the central bank trying to (increase) liquidity," said analyst Chris Wu of CRU in Beijing.

"So that's why people are more bullish than expected ... for all metals, not just for copper."

* LME COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper was little changed at $5,819 a tonne by 0705 GMT, down 0.1 percent, following small losses in the previous session. Copper prices have been consolidating in a narrow range of $5,800-$5,965 since late June.

* SHFE COPPER: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper slipped by 0.3 percent to 46,770 yuan ($6,876) a tonne.

* LME NICKEL: LME nickel cut 1 percent gains, while LME zinc and lead sank around 1 percent, tracking a retracement in China steel.

* JAPAN ECONOMY: Japan's core machinery orders unexpectedly tumbled in May and the government downgraded the outlook for orders for the first time in eight months.

* U.S. ECONOMY: The U.S. economy continues to churn out jobs and grow at a steady pace, with investment and consumer confidence both healthy and only moderate signs of risk in financial markets, the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Friday.

* CHINA ECONOMY: China's producer price index (PPI) rose 5.5 percent in June from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday. This was in line with analyst forecasts and unchanged from the previous month.

* ALUMINIUM: Norwegian metals firm Norsk Hydro has agreed to take full ownership of aluminium products maker Sapa by buying a 50 percent stake from conglomerate Orkla, the companies said on Monday.

* COPPER SPECULATORS: Hedge funds and money managers in the week to July 3 raised their net long position in COMEX copper futures and options, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday.

* TIN: Shfe tin stocks have surged in the past two months and now stand at around three times the volume of LME tin stocks, reflecting greater availability of tin inside the world's biggest producer of the metal. 

MARKETS NEWS

* Asian stocks rose on Monday thanks to a robust Wall Street performance at the end of last week, while the U.S. dollar extended gains made after much stronger than expected June employment data.

Courtesy : Reuters