Copper futures were sold after Wednesday's open as some funds took small profits, though traders said activity was exceptionally light and small trades were exaggerating price moves.
"Today's selling was more funds. But it's slow right now. There hasn't been that much paper coming through in the past few days, so locals are pretty much dictating the activity in the rings," a COMEX floor broker said.
At the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, benchmark December copper was down 0.80 cent at $1.6530 a lb., in a lower range from $1.6420 to $1.6650 a lb.
Spot September copper fell 0.70 cent to $1.7290 a lb., in a $1.7190 to $1.754 trading band. COMEX estimated 10 am EDT copper volume at 3,000 lots.