Copper prices slipped on Thursday while the dollar steadied after the Federal Reserve pushed back a potential interest rate cut to the end of the year.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.9% at $9,859 per metric ton in official rings.

A day earlier it had surged to above $10,000 after lower-than-expected May U.S. inflation bolstered expectations of earlier rate cuts.

"Sentiment was bullish after the U.S. inflation data yesterday but then the Fed statement after the LME close suggested that there would only be one cut this year," said Robert Montefusco at Sucden Financial.

Montefusco said profit taking over the last few weeks had weighed on prices with $9,500 a key support level.

"Prices will be rangebound until we get better numbers out of the China market on the demand narrative," he said.

Indicators include the purchasing managers' index that gauges manufacturing activity of top metals buyer China and due at the end of the month. Before that there will be China's loan and total social financing which indicates credit availability for businesses.

The dollar steadied after the Fed held interest rates steady on Wednesday. A stronger dollar makes greenback-priced metals costlier for holders of other currencies.

Copper buyers are still not back in the market although prices have retreated 11% from an all-time high of $11,104.5 in May.

More copper was delivered to LME-registered warehouses in Taiwan and South Korea on Wednesday, as Chinese producers took advantage of high LME prices in May to export copper.

LME copper inventories have risen 22% to 127,343 tons over the last month.

LME aluminium fell 0.7% to $2,557 a ton, nickel declined 1.6% to $17,775, zinc shed 1.1% to $2,861, lead lost 0.2% to $2,169 and tin was flat at $33,350.

(Reporting by Julian Luk in London; editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Jason Neely)