New York copper futures fell early on Tuesday in light trade, but traders said the bulk of the business was mostly given to rollovers. Noting that the session range was narrow and prices still in the vicinity of all-time highs, traders said the selling was more due to lack of interest and switches than anything else.
At the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, benchmark September copper lost 0.60 cent a lb to $1.6790, in a $1.6715 to $1.6860 a lb range.
Spot August copper fell 2.25 cents to $1.7175 lb.
December copper was down 0.50 cent at $1.6360 a lb. The rest fell 0.40 to 0.65 cent. COMEX estimated 6,000 lots traded by 10 am EDT, though 1,338 lots were due to switches.