MELBOURNE: London copper edged higher on Tuesday as the dollar eased from seven-month highs, while nickel found some support from data that showed a drop in mine supply.
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said on Monday that economic stability could be threatened by low interest rates, but it was "not that simple" for the Fed to hike, helping to drag on the dollar.
"Copper is being driven more by the global macro at the minute, particularly the USD, while the other metals are beating their own drums. Its fundamentals are not too bad," said analyst Daniel Hynes of ANZ in Sydney.
A weaker dollar boosts the purchasing power of commodities buyers paying with other currencies.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.4 percent to $4,692 a tonne by 0251 GMT. Prices on Monday ended the session flat at $4,675, not far off Friday's 1-month trough of $4,623.25.
Shanghai Futures Exchange copper edged up 0.1 percent to 37,280 yuan ($5,590) a tonne.
LME nickel climbed 0.7 percent to $10,360 a tonne.
"It's surprising how little the market has reacted to the potential disruptions given nickel is already in a decent deficit," ANZ's Hynes added.
"Certainly the demand environment has improved drastically over the course of 2016. It is very constructive these disruptions coming at a time when demand is starting to recover."
The global nickel market returned to balance in August, industry data showed on Tuesday, although a deficit for the first eight months could widen further amid strong Chinese demand and a crackdown on Philippine mine supply.
Trading was dampened ahead of China's third quarter economic growth report, out on Wednesday.
China's economic growth is expected to cool to 6.6 percent this year and slow further to 6.5 percent in 2017, even as the government keeps up policy support to help ward off a sharper slowdown, a Reuters poll showed.
China's non-financial outbound direct investment rose 53.7 percent in the January-September period from a year earlier to $ 134.2 billion, the commerce ministry said on Tuesday.
In other news, U.S. industrial production barely rose in September as a rebound in manufacturing output was offset by a decline in utilities production, suggesting a moderate acceleration in economic growth in the third quarter.
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