US MIDDAY: copper slips

In New York, the active May COMEX contract settled with a loss of 4.20 cents at $3.8795 per lb, after dealing between $3.8050 and $3.9615. Copper prices rose earlier in the day on news that the European Central Bank (ECB) had allocated more than $500 billion for low-interest loans, fuelling hopes that more credit will flow to businesses and that government borrowing costs will ease further.
"The LTRO kicked off the rally back in December, but interestingly enough, today happens to be the second LTRO ... where everything across the board has come back down to life," Sarhan said. "The US data has clearly been better in recent weeks, there's underlying strength in the US economy. But Europe remains a mess and oil prices are a concern," said Nic Brown, head of commodities research at Natixis.