BEIJING, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Base metal prices on Friday edged down from near multi-year peaks after U.S. President Donald Trump backed a stronger dollar, prompting the currency to
trade above its recent lows. A stronger dollar makes metals more expensive for holders of other currencies. Its recent weakness had seen copper jump 1.5
percent in Shanghai on Thursday, following a similar climb in London on Wednesday, while Shanghai nickel gained 3.5 percent. "The previous day's bounce was too sudden. After the prices
rose, there are not many people looking to buy high," Xu Maili, director of non-ferrous metal research at Everbright Futures in
Shanghai, said on Friday. "After all, the fundamentals are not good. A correction is very normal." Commodity prices could take their next cue from preliminary
U.S. GDP figures for the fourth quarter of last year that are due Friday, said Edward Meir, commodity consultant with INTL FCStone.
"If we get an upside surprise in the GDP figure, we could see a round of dollar short-covering, followed by overdue profit-taking in a number of commodity complexes," Meir wrote in
a note. FUNDAMENTALS: * LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.3 percent at $7,119,50 a tonne at
0523 GMT, after a 0.2 percent drop in the previous session. The metal remains on course for a weekly rise of 1.1 percent. * INVENTORIES: On-warrant copper stocks in LME-approved
warehouses jumped by 24,825 tonnes to 253,400 tonnes on Thursday, surging 67 percent over the past week. Headline levels have climbed by 46 percent to 299,600 tonnes.
* SHFE COPPER: The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dipped 0.2 percent to 53,450 yuan ($8,447.12) a tonne.
* CHILE: Chile's state-owned Codelco, the world's largest copper miner, said on Thursday it had received environmental approvals for a revised plan to extend the working
life of its century-old El Teniente copper mine. * FREEPORT: Freeport-McMoRan Inc said it was edging closer to a permit deal with Indonesia for its massive Grasberg
mine, but the world's second-biggest copper producer cautioned that it has not yet struck any formal agreements. * NICKEL: ShFE nickel was the sole gainer among base metals
in early trade on Friday, climbing another 1.1 percent to 103,730 yuan a tonne. * REUTERS POLL: Supply problems including strikes at copper
mines and pollution shutdowns at aluminium smelters will spur deeper shortages of the metals this year, but weaker Chinese demand may weigh on overcooked prices, a Reuters poll showed.
