Copper lower in New York

Comex copper futures closed lower on Monday, recovering a bit from session lows but holding in the loss column under pressure from fund selling and strong oil prices, traders said.
"Copper seems to be focusing on the oil complex," said David Meger, metals analyst with Alaron Trading. The threat that high oil prices pose to economic growth "is continuing to be a concern to the market," he said.
Benchmark December copper on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division slipped 2.90 cents to $1.2765 a lb., moving in a $1.2565-$1.3160 trading range. Spot October was off 2.95 cents at $1.2800 a lb.
Comex estimated volume at 12,000 lots. Copper futures sagged after crude oil prices hit yet another record high above $55 a barrel in overnight trading. Copper stabilised with December around $1.2600 a lb, but commodity investment funds sold when the market showed little impetus higher and took prices to session lows, traders said.
Copper recovered slightly as oil prices came off their highs, but they stayed in negative territory. Traders said the weaker dollar countered some pressure in trading as it fell to within one cent of record lows against the euro. Higher oil prices raised concern about US growth and the US economy's ability to attract investors. In other news, the CFTC's Commitment of Traders report released after the close on Friday showed the net speculative long position in Comex copper futures decline to 13,279 contracts as of October 19 from 29,654 contracts the prior week.
Tim Evans, senior commodity analyst at IFR Pegasus, said in his weekly metals commentary that the data reflected the massive price drop of October 13 and in effect placed the market back to where it was in August. "If this were any market, we would be concerned that the flow of selling might continue, with fund managers concluding that if it is weak enough to dump length, it is worth reversing to short as well.
In this case however, we think it far more likely that they will simply regroup and eventually be enticed into accumulating long positions again," he wrote. On the London Metal Exchange, three-month copper slipped to $2,755/59 a tonne in late trading, down $49, as prices fell through support to a low of $2,735.
Traders were watching the October 14 bottom of $2,660, the market's lowest point since late July.