Morning Copper Market Report

Copper prices initially climbed up towards last Friday's highs before falling back below last Friday's lows. While Asian copper prices showed some strength overnight from ideas that upcoming Chinese economic numbers will provide some evidence of improvement in Chinese manufacturing activity, copper may have been partially undermined by evidence of rising copper production from the world's largest copper mine, the Escondida mine in Chile. While there was news of a minor improvement in Japanese copper cable demand, lukewarm market optimism toward Europe and declining US easing hopes have some traders feeling that the market's focus will be on the prospects of easing from the Chinese central bank.