COMEX copper futures drifted lower Tuesday morning after overnight Far Eastern selling pressured London Metal Exchange prices, but a lack of follow-through sales and imminent US consumer confidence data kept the market afloat as dealers tracked the foreign exchange.
Active September copper was off 0.30 cent at $1.2470 a lb at 9:46 am EDT (1346 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchanges COMEX division, moving from $1.2530 to $1.2355. Spot July lost 0.35 cent to $1.2460 and deferreds dipped 0.55 to 0.75 cent.
"Were lower because of London and after the Chinese were selling overnight," a COMEX floor trader said. "There was some arbitrage earlier at the lower numbers so there must have been some buying around in London, but its very light volume."
Locals were waiting for the US data this week and their effect on the euro for direction in base metals, the trader said.
"Fundamentally, there is nothing going on. Its the middle of the summer and its quiet. But warehouse stocks are going down everyday and they should be disappearing in a couple of months."
COMEX estimated turnover was 2,000 lots at 9:00 am. Dealers said prices earlier hiked up to session highs on short-covering, but a flurry of fund selling emerged to cap gains and the market set to drifting.