London copper steadies above $6,000 as supply worries persist
London copper steadies above $6,000 as supply worries persist
MELBOURNE, Feb 15 (Reuters) - London copper prices steadied on Wednesday to trade above the key $6,000-mark for a fourth session, buoyed by supply worries even as talks were set to resume between striking miners and BHP Billiton at the world's biggest copper mine in Chile.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange had edged up 0.3 percent to $6,040 a tonne by 0109 GMT, following 1.4-percent losses the session before.
* Prices powered through the $6,000-level on Friday after BHP declared force majeure on shipments from the Escondida mine, to hit the highest since May 2015 at $6,204 a tonne on Monday.
* Striking workers at Escondida and BHP said they had agreed to renew talks on Wednesday.
* Shanghai Futures Exchange copper kept 2-percent losses at 48,920 yuan ($7,126.11) a tonne.
* Also throwing up headwinds for commodities, the dollar stood tall on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signalled a faster pace of U.S. interest rate increases at her two-day testimony before Congress.
* Peru will start the bidding on a nearly 100-year old polymetallic smelter and a copper mine at about $270 million in a March 10 auction, the government said on Tuesday.
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MARKETS NEWS
* Asian stocks rose on Wednesday as Wall Street set record highs overnight after Yellen spoke in support of an interest rate hike next month.
DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT)
1000 Euro zone Eurostat trade Dec
1330 U.S. Consumer prices Jan
1330 U.S. New York Fed manufacturing Feb
1330 U.S. Retail sales Jan
1415 U.S. Industrial production Jan
1500 U.S. Business inventories Dec
1500 U.S. NAHB housing market index Feb
1500 Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen delivers semiannual
monetary testimony before the House Financial Services Committee
PRICES
Three month LME copper
Most active ShFE copper
Three month LME aluminium
Most active ShFE aluminium
Three month LME zinc
Most active ShFE zinc
Three month LME lead
Most active ShFE lead
Three month LME nickel
Most active ShFE nickel
Three month LME tin
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