BEIJING: London copper edged higher on Friday as support from a weaker dollar saw the metal claw back the previous session's losses, although uncertainty over the progress in US-China trade talks capped the upside.
Copper remained on course to shed 1.6 percent this week on fears China's slowing economy will hurt demand. That would mark its steepest weekly drop since the week ended Dec. 21.
On the supply side, Freeport McMoRan Inc, the world's second-largest copper miner, forecast on Thursday a drop in 2019, production.
An Indonesian official said earlier this month that Freeport's Grasberg mine would produce around 1.2 million tonnes of copper concentrate this year, compared to 2.1 million tonnes in 2018, as operations move from open pit to underground mining.
Grasberg's output is expected to double between 2019, and 2021, Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson said.
"As long as global GDP growth exceeds 1 percent this year and 2 percent (per year) on average thereafter, the market should go into a meaningful deficit with rising prices," Jefferies analyst Christopher LaFemina wrote in a note.
FUNDAMENTALS
LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.5 percent at $5,951 a tonne as of 0749 GMT, with traders also pointing to short-covering ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in China next month. The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ended flat at 47,380 yuan ($7,006.60) a tonne.
TRADE: The United States and China are a long way from resolving trade issues but there is a fair chance the two countries will get to a trade deal, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday.
SCRAP: China's imports of scrap copper from the United States rose in December from the previous month, customs data showed, snapping six straight months of declines.
ANGLO: Anglo American said its copper output had reached a five-year high and its overall output for the last quarter of 2018, had risen 7 percent following operational changes that boosted efficiency.
NICKEL: The metal used to make stainless steel closed up 1 percent in Shanghai and added 0.3 percent in London , where other metals were also marginally higher.
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MARKETS NEWS
Asian stocks rallied to a seven-week high, buoyed by gains in US technology firms as pockets of strength in corporate earnings eased some of the anxiety over a slowing global economy.
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