US MIDDAY: copper falls

In New York, the key May COMEX contract fell 4.35 cents or 1.1 percent to settle at $3.8595 per lb, near the bottom of its $3.8355 to $3.9325 session range. Volumes stood near 46,500 lots in late New York business, down by more than a third from the 30-day average, according to preliminary Thomson Reuters data.
Copper bears pounced on the lowered China growth outlook, dragging prices down to a key line of technical support that had previously attracted strong buyer interest in late February, noted Michael Matousek, senior trader for US Global Investors Inc.