Copper futures in New York edged higher at the open on Tuesday, buoyed by short covering and spread business as players concentrated on rolling positions out of December before it goes into delivery at month's end, floor dealers said.
"Not a lot of volume down here to start. It looks like some guys are covering their shorts they had yesterday, overnight, and leading into this morning," said a trader down on the floor of the exchange.
Copper for December delivery was trading up 2.00 cents at $3.0950 a lb by 10:23 am EST (1523 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, dealing in a relatively tight range from $3.07 to $3.13. Spot November rose 2.50 cents to $3.09, moving between $3.07 and $3.1050.
COMEX copper volume at 10:00 am was estimated at 5,000 lots, with 716 lots in switches trading hands. As of November 13, open interest in December fell 3,661 lots to 28,045 contracts, while interest in March grew 4,463 lots to 29,699 contracts.