By Anna Stablum Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Copper, little changed in New York and London today, may decline as the U.S. dollar strengthened and stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange expanded for a 34th consecutive day. Inventory rose to an eight-month high, with the expansion the longest since 1999, signaling weakening demand. The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure against six counterparts, gained 0.1 percent, making dollar-priced commodities more expensive to holders of other monies. “With much of the recent gains in metals coming primarily from the weaker dollar, it is logical to assume that some of these advances will be rolled back as the dollar strengthens,” Edward Meir, an MF Global Ltd. analyst in Darien, Connecticut, said in a note. “We are not seeing a compelling improvement in the fundamentals.” Copper for March delivery fell 1.2 cent, or 0.4 percent, to $3.116 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex unit at 9:05 a.m. LME copper for three-month delivery fell 0.3 percent to $6,848.25 a metric ton. Copper stockpiles monitored by the LME expanded to 476,350 tons, the most since April 15. Copper stockpiles in Shanghai jumped 9 percent to 104,377 tons, the highest level since Dec. 3, a Shanghai Futures Exchange report showed. The contango, or discount between copper for immediate delivery and the three-month contract, widened to $44 a ton yesterday, the most since Nov. 20 last year. A market in contango can signal plentiful supplies. Business Confidence Prices rose earlier as German business confidence rose to a 17-month high. The country is the world’s third-largest copper buyer, behind China and the U.S. The Munich-based Ifo institute’s business climate index for December rose to 94.7, the highest since July 2008. “There has been a splurge of positive data coming out,” Daniel Major, an analyst at RBS Global Banking & Markets in London, said by phone. “Risk appetite is still reasonably well bid and that has been pretty supportive.” Among other LME metals for three-month delivery, aluminum rose 1 percent to $2,239 a ton. LME-monitored aluminum stockpiles rose to a record of 4.64 million tons today. Stockpiles of aluminum in Shanghai climbed 210 tons to 297,308 tons, the exchange said. That’s the highest level since 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Tin gained 0.6 percent at $15,900 a ton after reaching $16,000 earlier, the highest price since Oct. 8 last year. Nickel eased $5 to $17,070 a ton, lead fell 1.7 percent to $2,320 a ton, while zinc rose 1.6 percent to $2,427 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Stablum in London at astablum@bloomberg.net

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