Adds prices and comments

By Violet Li and Mei Mei Chu

SHANGHAI, Dec 17 (Reuters) -Copper prices remained within a narrow range on Tuesday as traders adopted a cautious approach ahead of the U.S. interest rate decision later this week.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 was down 0.1% at $9,053.5 per metric ton, as of 0337 GMT.

The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 was relatively unchanged at 74,480 yuan ($10,225.85) a ton by the close of the Asia morning session.

The U.S. Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision on Wednesday, and interest rate futures imply a 94% chance of a reduction, even as services-sector activity leapt to a three-year high, according to an S&P Global purchasing managers survey.

China's economic data on Monday showed disappointing retail sales in November, keeping alive calls for Beijing to ramp up its consumer-focused stimulus.

Industrial output growth quickened slightly in the world's top consumer of the metal.

"People are closely watching the FOMC meeting to see if there will be an interest rate cut this month, but the expectation is that rate cuts will slow down next year," a trader said.

LME aluminium CMAL3 was down nearly 1% at $2,544.5 a ton, zinc CMZN3 rose 0.2% to $3,061.5, lead CMPB3 was relatively unchanged at $2,001, tin CMSN3 rose 0.4% to $29,350, while nickel CMNI3 was down 0.6% to $15,615.

SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 slipped 1.8% to 19,935 yuan a ton, tin SSNcv1 was up 0.5% at 246,770 yuan, nickel SNIcv1 slid 1.3% to 125,170 yuan, while zinc SZNcv1 fell 0.8% to 25,595 yuan and lead SPBcv1 rose 0.8% to 17,500 yuan.

For the top stories in metals and other news, click

TOP/MTL or MET/L

($1 = 7.2864 Chinese yuan)

Reporting by Violet Li and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

 For related news and prices, click on the codes in brackets: LME price overview RING= COMEX copper futures 0#HG: All metals news MTL All commodities news C 
 Foreign exchange rates FX=SPEED GUIDES LME/INDEX