US copper futures opened with steep losses Friday on some overseas arbitrage selling that pressured prices through some key technical support levels, market sources said. They added the weaker US trade deficit data failed to inspire funds to buy amid the dollar's early weakness. "After the number came out this morning, everything rallied up and pretty much all copper did was get back to about unchanged, so as the other markets pulled back, copper started to ease a little bit," said one broker.
At the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, benchmark May copper was down 1.40 cents at $1.4820 a lb., after moving from $1.4560 to $1.4950. March copper was off 1.50 cents at $1.48. COMEX estimated copper volume at 9:00 am EST 1400 (GMT) was at 3,000 lots.