By Francesca Freeman LONDON--Copper futures were flat on the London Metal Exchange Wednesday, lacking much direction as investors awaited the release of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes. The LME's flagship three-month copper contract was down 0.1% at $7,347.50 a metric ton in morning European trade. Aluminum was down 0.1% at $1,783 a ton. Trade was cautious ahead of the release of the Fed's December policy meeting minutes, due at 1900 GMT. The meeting saw the central bank announce that it would taper its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion a month. The minutes "should be interesting in terms of revealing the split in votes from last month's decision to taper, as well as clues as to when the next round of tapering might be," said Vicky Sanders, head of analytics sales at Marex Spectron. Some say base metal prices have benefited from the Fed's bond-buying program in recent years. Industrial metals are used widely in construction and manufacturing and efforts to boost economic growth can therefore prop up end-demand. Concern over Chinese demand for base metals continued to hang over market sentiment Wednesday, said Rob Montefusco, a senior commodities broker at Sucden Financial. All four of the most closely watched gauges of purchasing managers' sentiment in China showed slower growth in December, data released last week and on Monday show. That's the first time they've retreated in unison since April, and may signal a renewed slowdown in an economy that accounts for 40% of global copper demand. In other base metals Wednesday, zinc was up 0.3% at $2,049 a ton, nickel was down 0.3% at $13,474 a ton, lead was up 0.2% at $2,160 a ton and tin was up 0.6% at $21,925 a ton.

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