Copper prices hit their highest in more than two weeks on Monday as a weaker dollar triggered fund buying, but traders doubt that upward momentum can be maintained while sentiment remains dominated by U.S. import tariffs.

Levies imposed by President Donald Trump have dented the outlook for global economic growth and demand for industrial metals.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 1.5% at $9,325 a metric ton by 1126 GMT after touching its highest since April 4 at $9,333.

"It's not really to do with fundamentals, more to do with (funds) buying in reaction to the dollar and some people cutting their short positions," one copper trader said.

The currency has been hit by concern over the independence of the Federal Reserve after Trump's attack on Fed chief Jerome Powell.

A weaker U.S. currency makes dollar-priced metals cheaper for buyers with other currencies, potentially boosting demand. That relationship is used by funds known as commodity trading advisors (CTAs), which trade on buy and sell signals generated from numerical models.

On the technical front, copper has breached resistance at the 50-day and 100-day moving averages at around $9,290 and $9,330 respectively. The next upside barrier is around $9,380, the 21-day moving average.

Support for copper comes from stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE), which have dropped 36% to 171,611 tons since the end of February, along with lower inventories in Shanghai's bonded warehouses .

While trade conflict is expected to hit demand in the second and third quarters, most businesses are hoping for stimulus to offset that, Citi analysts said in a note on China.

"Infrastructure investment - rail, port, power - is resilient ... Auto sales have been stronger than expected of late and dealers are hopeful that domestic demand will be resilient despite export headwinds," they wrote.

In other metals, aluminium was up 0.8% at $2,384 a ton, zinc gained 1.5% to $2,616, lead rose 0.6% to $1,933, tin jumped 1.3% to $31,030 and nickel was up 0.4% at $15,690.

(Reporting by Pratima Desai Editing by David Goodman)