Shanghai copper slips

The most traded February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped by 0.3 percent to 46,720 yuan ($7,611 a tonne) on Thursday as a softer dollar offset concerns over demand growth in top consumer China. China's central bank refrained from draining funds from the money market on Thursday, the first time it held off from open market operations in four months. That followed on the heels of recent efforts to reduce funding pressure on Chinese companies to support the cooling economy.
"At the beginning the market was euphoric (about China's moves) ... but in reality things in China will probably continue to slow," said analyst Dominic Schnider at UBS Wealth Management in Hong Kong. "The market is taking this more as a sign that things aren't good. Copper wire producers are hoping that the (announced) infrastructure projects give them a little additional demand but so far they are still waiting for things to feed through." China approved more than $100 billion worth of infrastructure projects in late October and early November.