US copper futures fell to a one-month low in thin dealings early Wednesday before climbing back to session highs as New York followed a weaker London market, with spread business the feature a day before July's first notice, traders said. "It's more roll-over than anything else this morning. Whatever happened, happened in London overnight and even that was not that much. I guess the market is still consolidating from last week's gains," said one floor source.
Benchmark September futures at the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division fell 0.70 cent at $1.5470 a lb. by 10:18 am EDT (1418 GMT), dealing in a quiet $1.5260 to $1.5505 trading band. Spot July copper eased 0.20 cent to $1.5870 a lb., trading from $1.5650 to $1.5880.
COMEX estimated 10 am copper volume reached 4,000 lots, with 851 lots of switches.
Dealers said the market has ignored, for the most part, the dollar's recent gains against the euro and higher crude oil prices.