Subsidized Rural Home Appliance Sales Top 28 bln Yuan

NEW YORK, July 31&nbsp;-- Copper may decline on speculation that Chinese imports will shrink and metal booked to be taken out of London Metal Exchange-monitored warehouses will drop.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Canceled warrants, or metal earmarked for delivery, fell to 11,900 metric tons yesterday, compared with as much as 84,000 tons on April 30.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Thirteen of 16 analysts, investors and traders surveyed by Bloomberg, or 81 percent, said copper would drop next week. Three predicted higher prices. Copper for three-month delivery rose 1.4 percent this week to $5,602 a ton at 5:24 p.m. yesterday on the LME.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Copper has jumped 82 percent this year, helped by demand from China, the world's biggest consumer of the metal.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The weekly copper survey has forecast prices accurately in 24 of the past 48 weeks, or 50 percent of the time.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This week's survey results: Bullish: 3, Bearish: 13
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (Source: Bloomberg) 
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