US copper futures climbed at the open on Friday, with the benchmark May contract breaching the $3.00 level, as fund buying returned to the market following Thursday's profit-taking shake-out, sources said.
By 10:33 am EDT (1433 GMT), copper for May delivery was up 6.80 cents, or 2.3 percent, at $3.03 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, near the upper half of its early $2.8985-$3.0460 trading range.
Spot April rose 6.40 cents at $3.13 a lb, just shy of a new COMEX record at $3.1350. COMEX copper volume at 9 am was estimated at 3,000 lots, with 750 lots in switches.