SINGAPORE: London copper futures rose modestly on Friday but were heading for their fifth weekly loss in six weeks on persistent worries over a debt crisis in Europe as hopes faded that concrete measures could be reached at a summit later in the day.
FUNDAMENTALS
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange gained 0.3 percent to $7,735.75 a tonne by 0105 GMT. For the week, copper is down 2 percent.
The most-active February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped 0.9 percent to 57,340 yuan per tonne.
Opposition from Germany and the European Central Bank doused hopes that it would boost its bond-buying to help fight the euro zone's debt crisis had pushed back market expectations for big and bold measures at a leaders' summit in Brussels.
Also on tap are Chinese data, including inflation. China's inflation is likely to have eased in November, giving Beijing more room to ease monetary policy and support growth which should boost its raw material demand.
Also due out of China are data on industrial output and retail sales, and weaker numbers here could also lead to further easing after last week's reserve requirement ratio cut which was the first in three years. The Chinese economic indicators come out ahead of Saturday's commodity import numbers expected to show an improvement in November after prices fell.
Chinese copper smelters hope to convince BHP Billiton, the majority owner of the world's biggest copper mine, to agree to higher treatment and refining charges which its rival Freeport McMoRan set for 2012, trading sources said.
MARKETS NEWS
The euro nursed hefty losses in Asia ahead of an all-important EU summit, after the European Central Bank poured cold water on hopes it would buy up more bonds of debt-laden euro zone states, a step some deem essential to containing the debt crisis.
US stocks fell on Thursday after the European Central Bank dashed hopes that policy-makers were preparing a financial "bazooka" to contain the debt crisis, and Germany rejected some proposals to add power to the euro zone's bailout fund.
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