Copper steadied after declining to near $14,000 a ton as fresh deliveries of stockpiles to exchange-tracked warehouses signaled an easing of a supply squeeze. Futures on the London Metal Exchange were little changed on Tuesday after their lowest close in four weeks. Prices have pulled back sharply since rallying to a record high last week, when traders were diverting supplies to the US in anticipation of tariffs on refined metal, leaving the rest of the world starved of supply. So far, that measure has failed to materialize and on Monday, LME warehouses received their biggest deliveries of the metal in almost four weeks.

Three-month futures flipped to a premium of $85.75 a ton to copper for immediate delivery, a market structure known as contango that signals ample supply. Later Tuesday traders will look to a slew of economic data from China, including retail sales, to see how demand is holding up in the world's top metals consumer. Also in focus is the Federal Reserve's upcoming meeting, where the central bank is expected to raise interest rates. That's typically a negative for non-yielding assets like commodities.

Copper edged up 0.2% to trade at $14,032 a ton on the LME at 10 a.m. in Singapore. Other metals were similarly little changed, with aluminum up 0.2% and zinc down 0.2%. Singapore iron ore futures were stable at $95.55 a ton.