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Ahead of the two-day Christmas break, three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed up 0.5 percent at $7,124 a tonne, having touched its highest in more than two months at $7,129.50.
"There's been stronger-than-expected (property) data out of China, we've seen some good data (from) the US property market, plus tax reform (was passed by the US Congress)," said Carsten Menke, head of commodities research at Julius Baer.
But he also said: "I don't think $7,000 will hold as we move into 2018. The latest data for China's property market was positive, but the trend since June, July is down. We should get softening demand for metals despite a solid global economy."