Bareksa.com - London copper drifted on Wednesday as traders took profits after prices failed to build on gains after reaching their highest in two months last week, suggesting lukewarm appetite from consumers despite the peak season for demand.

Fundamentals

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange had edged down 0.3 percent to $6,862 a tonne by 0135 GMT, extending small losses from the previous session.

The most-traded August copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange sagged 0.9 percent to 48,370 yuan ($7,800) a tonne.

LME nickel slipped 1.7 percent to 19,510 a tonne - falling further from a 27-month peak of 21,625 hit on May 13.

The Federal Reserve should be able to raise interest rates slowly when it eventually tightens monetary policy given that slack in the U.S. economy is restraining inflation, a top official at the central bank said on Tuesday.

China could miss its target for trade growth for a third consecutive year in 2014 as higher labour costs and weaker global demand hurt what has been one of the economy's main engines, a senior commerce ministry official said.

Goldman Sachs has begun a formal process to sell the metals warehousing business it purchased four years ago, a spokesman said on Tuesday, disclosing the first definitive effort to shed the operation amid regulatory and political pressure.

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Markets news

Asian shares caught Wall Street's gloom in early trading on Wednesday, while the dollar languished for a sixth straight session against the yen.

(Source : Reuters)