(Updates prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Copper prices rebounded onWednesday on strong economic data from top metals consumer Chinaand the United States, shrugging off a surge in inventories.China's factory activity extended solid growth in September,underlining a steady economic recovery from the coronavirusshock, while U.S. data showed private employers stepped uphiring in September by more than forecast.Copper fluctuated between modest losses and gains in earlytrade but climbed after the U.S. payrolls data was released.
"The data overnight shows China is clearly improving, but atthe same time so has the data in terms of available copperstocks over the past few days," said Ole Hansen, head ofcommodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen."The fact we've broken the uptrend that has been in placesince March means we can at the minimum expect some sidewaystrading, with the potential risk of running into some additionalprofit-taking from the longs."Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) had gained 1.6% to $6,686 a tonne by 1600 GMT, havingearlier slipped as low as $6,563.
Chinese markets will be closed Oct. 1-8 for the Golden Weekholiday.
* Also supporting prices was a turnaround in the dollarindex , which had been firmer but slipped in latertrading, making greenback-priced metals less expensive to buyersusing other currencies.
* LME copper stocks surged by nearly 30,000tonnes to 165,600, data showed on Wednesday, and have more thandoubled over the past week.
* Nickel smelting park PT Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Parkexpects next year to double its current capacity of 110,000tonnes of nickel content per year.
* LME aluminium fell 0.8% to $1,769.50 a tonne andzinc dropped 0.8% to $2,405.Lead shed 1.1% to $1,825 after touching a two-monthlow of $1,814, nickel rose 0.6% to $14,545 and tin added 0.1% to $17,480.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or ($1 = 6.8064 yuan) (Additional reporting by Mai NguyenEditing by Mark Potter and David Goodman)