* Investors focus on gloomy broad trade picture * China's July exports undershoot forecasts by big margin * China's July copper imports rose 5.9 pct on mth * Coming up: U.S. Federal budget for July; 1800 GMT (Adds quotes, details, updates prices; previous Shanghai) By Eric Onstad LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Copper prices slipped on Friday for a third session after weak Chinese trade numbers marked another day of gloomy data, spurring fears about a worse than expected economic slowdown in the world's top metals consumer. Investors focused on the deteriorating economic outlook rather than a surprising rise in copper imports in July. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.9 percent to $7,468 per tonne by 1010 GMT, but was on track for a 0.3 percent gain on the week. "It looks like China's heading for a slightly harder landing maybe. That's seems to be how the market's interpreting it, not looking just at the metal-specific trade data but the wider trade picture," said analyst David Wilson at Citigroup in London. China's imports of commodities such as iron ore and copper held up better than expected in July, but weak trade figures and a nine-month low in crude oil imports painted a picture of a slowing economy. The data followed figures on Thursday showing factory output growth slowed unexpectedly in July to the weakest in more than three years. While investors have previously pushed up prices on the back of soft economic data, reckoning that it would spur officials to launch fresh stimulus measures, many seemed to be losing hope for quick injections of liquidity. "I think we're in a no-man's land with that at the moment... The market's wondering whether we're going to get more cutting or do we have wait to see if the policy measures in China that already been introduced actually have an impact," said Wilson. Still, other investors were hoping for such measures by major economies would help spur global growth and metals demand, keeping an eye on the euro zone after comments by a top official of the European Central Bank signalled the bank may soon intervene in bond markets to help debt-laden Spain and Italy. Copper, hit by low volumes during the European holiday season, is likely to remain trapped next week in its recent range with a bias to the downside, Wilson added. The industrial metal, which has shed 11 percent since the beginning of May, has traded between $7,300 and $7,600 during August. The trade data showed that Chinese copper imports rose 5.9 percent in July from June, but analysts were not impressed, attributing this mainly to term contracts and financing deals rather than a pick-up in consumer demand. "We understand that consumer demand is still sluggish," said CIFCO futures analyst Zhou Jie, pointing to a fall in futures prices as evidence of market nonchalance to the higher-than-expected copper imports. The most active November copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1 percent to 54,620 yuan ($8,600) per tonne, snapping four sessions of gains, and was on track to log a 1.3 percent rise for the week. "Base metals as a whole look bad today, even copper, which would have lost more if not for bargain hunting...," said a Shanghai-based trader with an international firm. "Shanghai zinc was the biggest victim of the disappointing China trade data, dragging down LME zinc, as there was no support from fundamentals," he added. LME zinc fell 1.0 percent to $1,841.75 a tonne. Zinc prices have been pressured by high Chinese inventories and low global demand from an ailing galvanised steel industry. LME aluminium shed 0.8 percent to $1,885 a tonne, lead fell 1.1 percent to $1,900.25, tin gave up 0.6 percent to $17,801 and nickel lost 1.0 percent to $15,343. Metal Prices at 1017 GMT Comex copper in cents/lb, LME prices in $/T and SHFE prices in yuan/T Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2011 Ytd Pct move COMEX Cu 338.50 -4.00 -1.17 344.75 -1.81 LME Alum 1884.75 -15.25 -0.80 2020.00 -6.70 LME Cu 7465.25 -68.75 -0.91 7600.00 -1.77 LME Lead 1899.75 -21.25 -1.11 2034.00 -6.60 LME Nickel 15338.00 -162.00 -1.05 18650.00 -17.76 LME Tin 17800.00 -100.00 -0.56 19200.00 -7.29 LME Zinc 1842.50 -17.50 -0.94 1845.00 -0.14 SHFE Alu 15430.00 -60.00 -0.39 15845.00 -2.62 SHFE Cu* 54730.00 -540.00 -0.98 55360.00 -1.14 SHFE Zin 14635.00 -120.00 -0.81 14795.00 -1.08 ** Benchmark month for COMEX copper * 3rd contract month for SHFE AL, CU and ZN SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07 ($1 = 6.3590 Chinese yuan)

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