Copper prices held steady on Tuesday as weak economic data from China, the metal’s biggest global consumer, punctured a speculator-driven rally. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.3% at $9,132.50 a tonne at 1203 GMT, having touched a high of $9,257 last Friday. Prices of the metal used in electrical wiring have surged 9% this month after China’s dismantling of economically damaging COVID-19 controls raised hopes that demand will revive. In the short term, however, Chinese consumption is weak and likely to remain so as the country heads into the Lunar New Year holidays next week. Chinese ... (full story)