The most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped nearly 1 percent to 51,110 yuan ($7,952) a tonne on Wednesday, a one-week low. Copper pressured by a firmer dollar and as Italy's deepening political crisis pulled investors out of risky assets.
News that the United States will continue with imposing tariffs on $50 billion of imports from China unless Beijing addresses the issue of theft of US intellectual property also weighed on sentiment.
Shanghai tin jumped more than 3 percent to an intraday high of 157,560 yuan a tonne, its strongest level since August. Traders have said the market was concerned that shipments from China's top supplier Myanmar were falling.
Chinese state media criticised a US announcement that it would press ahead with restrictions on investment by Chinese companies, saying that Beijing was ready to fight back if Washington was looking to reignite a trade war.
Vedanta Resources is working on a legal challenge to an Indian state's closure of one of its copper smelters, but it will not proceed until tensions over the deaths of 13 people during protests last week have eased.
Two global aluminium producers have offered Japanese buyers a premium of $159-160 per tonne for primary metal shipments for the July-September quarter, up 23-24 percent from the current quarter, four sources directly involved in pricing talks said.
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