BEIJING, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Shanghai nickel tumbled nearly 2 percent on Tuesday after touching a 5-week peak in the previous
session, with prices dampened by waning demand for steel. FUNDAMENTALS: * London Metal Exchange (LME) is closed on Tuesday for the
Boxing Day holiday. * The most-traded May nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1.8 percent to 94,610 yuan
($14,470.56) a tonne. It hit as much as 97,650 yuan a tonne on Monday, highest level since Nov 15. * SHFE: Shanghai Futures Exchange says to cut margin
requirements for copper, aluminium, tin, gold, silver futures contracts from Jan 2. * STEEL: Steel demand in the world's top producer and
consumer of the metal cooled as construction slowed with lower temperature in China's northern regions. * COPPER: Pan Pacific Copper (PPC), Japan's biggest copper
smelter, expects copper prices to rise more than a quarter over the next two years as global demand continues to grow and
outpaces supply, its senior executive said on Monday. * DOLLAR: The dollar was steady in holiday-thinned trading on Tuesday, shrugging off upbeat Japanese economic data as most
market participants have already closed their books for the year. * CHINA MONETARY: Beijing is likely to set its 2018 money
growth target at an all-time low of around 9 percent to curb debt risks and contain asset bubbles, the official China Daily
reported on Monday, citing economists involved in high-level policy discussions. * CHINA ECONOMY: China needs to let local governments take
responsibility for their finances, including allowing bankruptcies, as part of an effort to defuse their debt risks, a central bank official wrote on Monday.
