US copper futures ended down for the second straight day on Tuesday as mounting worries about the subprime mortgage crisis and its potential affect on the real economy sparked renewed weakness in the market this week, analysts said.
"Copper looks like it's making a resumption of the longer-term downtrend," said Michael Gross, futures analyst with Optionsellers.com in Tampa, Florida. "There's a lot of concern about the US economy that has crept back into the picture after last week's short-lived jubilance.
I think you're seeing funds reestablish shorts here, taking the trend back lower again." At the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, most-active March futures settled down 5.85 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $3.02 a lb, after dealing in a $2.9770-$3.08 session range.
Spot December fell 6.30 cents to finish at $2.9980, while the rest of the board ended with losses ranging from 4.45 to 5.90 cents. Volumes remained on the light side with 10,367 lots estimated by the close. On Monday, final futures volumes totalled 10,952 lots.
Open interest in Comex copper futures edged up 47 lots to 70,695 contracts as of December 3. Copper, widely used in home construction for plumbing and electrical wiring, has shed nearly 19.5 percent of its market value since October as investors trim their bullish bets amid signs of slower economic growth in the United States stemming from a prolonged downturn in the housing sector.