By Melanie Burton
MELBOURNE, July 10 (Reuters) - London copper inched up on Monday after a solid U.S. jobs report buoyed hopes that an economic recovery is taking root in the world's top economy, spurring appetite for riskier assets.
The data followed expansion in China's manufacturing sector in June, which also underpinned investor demand for metals.
"Although (China's) domestic market is weakening because of seasonality, it has not shown a very strong weakness, and also because of the improving macro sentiment ... people have seen some signs from the (Chinese) central bank trying to (increase) liquidity," said analyst Chris Wu of CRU in Beijing.
"So that's why people are more bullish than expected ... for all metals, not just for copper."
* LME COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper CMCU3 had edged up 0.3 percent to $5,846.50 a tonne by 0409 GMT, after small losses in the previous session. Copper prices have been consolidating in a narrow range of $5,800-$5,965 since late June.
* SHFE COPPER: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper SCFcv1 was trading up 0.1 percent at 46,980 yuan ($6,908) a tonne.
* LME NICKEL: LME nickel rallied 1 percent, recovering from a steep fall the previous session when prices hit a two-week low. Nickel has been trending down on expectations Indonesia and Malaysia will step up ore shipments.
* JAPAN ECONOMY: Japan's core machinery orders unexpectedly tumbled in May and the government downgraded the outlook for orders for the first time in eight months. U.S. ECONOMY: The U.S. economy continues to churn out jobs and grow at a steady pace, with investment and consumer confidence both healthy and only moderate signs of risk in financial markets, the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Friday. CHINA ECONOMY: China's producer price index (PPI) rose 5.5 percent in June from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday. This was in line with analyst forecasts and unchanged from the previous month. CHINA OUTLOOK: China's economy will maintain steady and improving momentum in the second half of this year, but it still faces many difficulties, state radio quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying on Friday. NICKEL: Cuba plans to produce 54,500 tonnes of nickel and cobalt sulfides this year, state-run television said. COPPER SPECULATORS: Hedge funds and money managers in the week to July 3 raised their net long position in COMEX copper futures and options, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click
TOP/MTL or MET/L
MARKETS NEWS
* Asian stocks rallied on Monday, lifted by Wall Street's strong performance on Friday, while the U.S. dollar extended gains made after much stronger-than-expected June employment data. MKTS/GLOB
PRICES
Three month LME copper
CMCU3
Most active ShFE copper
SCFcv1
Three month LME aluminium
CMAL3
Most active ShFE aluminium
SAFcv1
Three month LME zinc
CMZN3
Most active ShFE zinc
SZNcv1
Three month LME lead
CMPB3
Most active ShFE lead
SPBcv1
Three month LME nickel
CMNI3
Most active ShFE nickel
SNIcv1
Three month LME tin
CMSN3
Most active ShFE tin
SSNcv1
ARBS
LMESHFCUc3
LMESHFALc3
LMESHFZNc3
LMESHFPBc3
LMESHFNIc3
($1 = 6.8005 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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