* Copper not far off 14-month highs hit on Wednesday * U.S. housing starts at 6-month low in October By Manolo Serapio Jr. MANILA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Copper continued to pull back on Thursday from the previous session's 14-month highs, on worries over weak U.S. economic data. Poor housing data blocked market attempts to push London prices past $7,000 a tonne on Wednesday, a level last seen in September 2008, but the rally could resume amid general optimism about the global economy, particularly in top copper consumer China. "This market is quite upbeat. If you look at the Chinese economy, it's still very strong and housing construction is reasonably robust," said Ben Westmore, commodity economist at National Australia Bank. "The one thing that's causing the volatility is that in a lot of other countries, and the United States is one, there is still uncertainty about the housing market." Construction of new homes in the United States hit a six-month low in October, providing more evidence of the economy's sluggish recovery. [ID:nN1899353] More U.S. data is due later on Thursday, including weekly jobless claims, the leading index for October and the Philadelphia Fed business activity index for November. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange MCU3 dipped $25 to $6,855 at 0236 GMT, after hitting a session high of $6,992 on Wednesday, its strongest level since late September 2008. Shanghai's benchmark third month copper SCFc3 fell 550 yuan to 53,390 yuan ($7,817) a tonne. The contract peaked at 53,950 yuan the previous day, its highest since Sept. 23, 2008. Despite the drop, copper prices are up more than 120 percent this year, benefitting from strong global equities, the dollar's weakness and on growing expectations demand will pick up strongly in 2010. Analysts were not too worried by news that BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) had halted all operations at its Spence copper mine in Chile after striking workers invaded the installations on the 37th day of the strike. [ID:nN18136519] "There is a pretty weak market balance in favour of oversupply at the moment, so it's not probably having as big an effect as it would previously," said Westmore. Base metals prices have surged even as inventories continued to rise. Copper stocks on LME warehouses rose another 4,100 tonnes to 414,100 tonnes on Wednesday, the highest since late April. In Shanghai copper inventories stand at 104,939 tonnes, the biggest in five and a half years. LME zinc stocks are at four-year highs, nickel at 15-year highs and aluminium at near record highs. "It seems that the infatuation with commodities continues despite less than stellar fundamentals," MF Global analyst Edward Meir said in a note, adding $7,500 looks to be the next resistance for LME copper "as charts seem to be wide open." "A lot of the momentum buying we've seen is being buoyed by expectations for demand being revised further upward and as a result of that investors are expecting the market balance in the base metals market to improve in the next year," said NAB's Westmore. Base metals prices at 0236 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2008 Pct chg 09 LME Cu 6855.00 -25.00 -0.36 3060.00 124.02 SHFE Cu* 53390.00 -550.00 -1.02 23840.00 123.95 LME Alum 2055.00 -10.00 -0.48 1535.00 33.88 SHFE Alum* 15465.00 -50.00 -0.32 11540.00 34.01 COMEX Cu** 310.75 0.00 +0.00 139.50 122.76 LME Zinc 2250.00 2.00 +0.09 1208.00 86.26 SHFE Zinc 17700.00 -135.00 -0.76 10120.00 74.90 LME Nickel 17050.00 -150.00 -0.87 11700.00 45.73 LME Lead 2370.00 -33.00 -1.37 999.00 137.24 LME Tin 14975.00 -220.00 -1.45 10700.00 39.95 LME/Shanghai arb^ 1368 Dollar/yuan 6.8274 \ 6.8277 ** 1st contract month for COMEX copper * 3rd contact month for SHFE aluminium, copper and zinc ^ LME 3-m copper in yuan, including 17 pct VAT, minus SHFE third month (Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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