Copper futures fell at the open on Wednesday, hit first by a spike in London copper stocks, then hammered further by a sharp drop in US orders data, traders said.
"Small funds were selling it. The September-December spreads were down a little bit. I think funds are still getting out of December. That's why we're down as much as we were today," a copper trader said.
At the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, September copper lost 1.90 cents to $1.6730 a lb., in a range of $1.6705 to $1.6915.
December copper, which has assumed the benchmark position with more than twice September's open interest, was down 1.60 cents at $1.6270 a lb. in a $1.6230-$1.6370 range. Spot August copper fell 2.45 cents to $1.72 lb. COMEX estimated 10 am volume at 10,000 lots, with rollovers subsiding to 1,548 lots.