* Markets eye China data later this week
* Coming up: Germany trade data for December; 0700 GMT
(Adds analyst comment, detail, updates prices)
By Melanie Burton
SHANGHAI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - London copper rose on
Wednesday, after two straight days of losses, as investors were
cautiously optimistic of an eventual agreement on details of a
new Greek bailout package despite recent delays.
Politicians in Athens have yet to sign off on painful
austerity measures that are a condition of a second bailout
package and have again pushed back the deadline for agreement to
Wednesday. But market players believe Greece is close to a deal.
"The fact that a deal on Greece has been pushed back is
neither here nor there -- the situtation in Europe will come to
a resolution," said analyst Matt Fusarelli of Australia-based
consultancy AME Group.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange
traded at $8,539.75 a tonne, up 0.7 percent, at 0511 GMT. Copper
has notched up four consecutive weeks of gains, and has rallied
almost 12 percent so far this year.
The most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai
Futures Exchange rose 0.9 percent to 60,590 yuan a
tonne.
" The fundamental picture is also looking a bit
better than it did a month ago, especially in the U.S., and
we're coming into a peak consumption period for copper,"
Fusarelli said, referring to the second quarter, typically a
strong period for copper demand.
Fresh signs emerged of a pick up in the U.S. economy last
week when data showed it created jobs at the fastest pace in
nine months in January.
Markets will be closely watching data out of China for
indications on the health of the world's second largest economy
amid a festering euro zone debt crisis.
China is the world's top copper consumer, accounting for
around 40 percent of refined copper demand last year.
"Consensus is that imports will be lower than record levels
in December. It's hard to predict by how much - on one hand we
had week-long holidays in January, but on the other we have seen
imported stocks increase," said Shanghai-based analyst Judy Zhu
of Standard Chartered.
Chinese imports of refined copper rose 18.3 percent in
December on the month to a record high due to improved arbitrage
and increased use of copper for financing purposes, but inflows
fell 3 percent in 2011 from 2010 on low imports in the first
half.
Also, copper stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai
Futures Exchange surged by more than one third over two weeks in
January, latest data showed, because of strong imports and
slower consumption during the Lunar New Year holidays.
Chinese preliminary trade data is due on Friday. There is
also Chinese inflation data scheduled for release on Thursday
that may have implications for metals, Credit Suisse Private
Banking said in a note.
"A further deceleration in inflation could open the door for
additional cuts in the Reserve Requirement Ratio by the People's
Bank of China. This in turn would be good news for cyclical
assets such as industrial metals."
However, BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner,
said it expects "the rate of growth in steelmaking raw materials
demand, particularly in China, to decelerate" in the longer
term. The company reported its first half-year profit fall in
two years on Wednesday, hurt by lower commodity prices and
higher costs.
Glencore lost money on agricultural commodities in
2011 by trading volatile cotton markets and also saw the
profitability of trading metals and oil remaining weak or
declining, the commodities giant said.
PRICES
Base metals prices at 0511 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct Move YTD pct chg
LME Cu 8539.75 58.75 +0.69 12.37
SHFE CU FUT APR2 60590 560 +0.93 9.45
HG COPPER MAR2 388.15 0.50 +0.14 12.97
LME Alum 2254.25 -0.75 -0.03 11.60
SHFE AL FUT MAY2 16290 50 +0.31 2.81
LME Zinc 2126.00 6.00 +0.28 15.23
SHFE ZN FUT APR2 16150 140 +0.87 9.16
LME Nickel 21675.00 -125.00 -0.57 15.85
LME Lead 2198.00 12.00 +0.55 8.01
SHFE PB FUT 16130.00 80.00 +0.50 5.53
LME Tin 25250.00 -245.00 -0.96 31.51
LME/Shanghai arb^ 2304
Shanghai and COMEX contracts show most active months
