COMEX copper futures fell on Tuesday as funds unloaded some of their holdings initially to follow the selling in Asian and London markets, then added to losses when US producer prices showed a surprising surge, traders said. "When we started out, there was talk the Chinese were selling copper out of their stockpile. I think that's what put the jitters in the market to begin with. But I think everyone had sold their souls halfway down, until there wasn't any follow through (selling)," said one copper dealer.
"That was the panic button, but then we recovered reasonably well," he added.
Benchmark December copper on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division dropped 1.85 cents to finish at $1.3690 a lb, in a range that extended down to $1.3520 from a one-month high of $1.3970 set on Monday.
Spot November copper fell 1.75 to end at $1.4190, while other contracts settled down 1.75 to 2.25 cents.
COMEX estimated final copper volume at 12,000 lots.
Whether material was actually released from the Chinese stockpile will not be known until possibly copper goes back on warrant or stocks drops in some of the Asian warehouses.
"Obviously, stop (loss sell orders) had been triggered all the way down, a lot of paper cleaned out, then it just created a little bit of a vaccum on the upside," the trader said.
"Considering where we were to where we finished, I think it was a fitting end," he added.
One trader called the selling "a good, healthy correction as long as it stays roughly around these levels." Brokers said rollovers out of December contracts and into March copper were also undermining prices on Tuesday.
A surge in the US producer price index did not help already falling red metal prices.
US producer prices shot up 1.7 percent in October, posting their largest gain in nearly 15 years. The rise was well above expectations for a 0.5 percent price rise, as energy costs skyrocketed and food prices surged.
Analysts said the report supported the case for the Federal Reserve to continue lifting US interest rates.
Some players think copper selling may have run its course on Tuesday, with a number of bullish fundamentals supporting prices, like inventory levels that date back to 1990 lows and a strike at Chile's El Abra mines.
Officials at the Chilean mine, majority owned by US-based Phelps Dodge Corp said on Tuesday they were reviewing a potential agreement with union workers to end a 12-day strike at the mine.
London Metal Exchange warehouse copper stocks fell by 425 tonnes to 67,125 tonnes on Tuesday.
LME three-months copper slid to $2,944 a tonne by Tuesday's kerb close, down sharply from the Monday finish at $3,004. Early losses led down to $2,924, which was well below Monday's one-month peak of $3,030 a tonne.
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