US copper futures climbed to new record levels in early business Tuesday, boosted by the broad-based rally in the precious metals market, but volume was light and will likely remain so ahead of Wednesday's Fed decision on US interest rates, traders said.
"It seems we're being dragged up by the rally in gold this morning. The sellers are few and far between in the copper, so a little buying comes in and they are able to move it 500 points higher," said one COMEX floor dealer.
BY 10:41 am EDT (1441 GMT), copper for July delivery was trading 5.55 cents, or 1.6 percent, higher at $3.5570 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, moving between $3.4870 and a new life-of-contract peak at $3.5650.
Spot May was up 5.45 cents at $3.66, after earlier charging to a new all-time COMEX record at $3.67 a lb. COMEX 9:00 am copper volume was estimated at only 2,000 lots.