US copper futures remained in negative territory early on Friday after data showing a 9 percent decline in new US home sales in November renewed growth concerns for the world's largest economy, analysts said.
"The data, again, highlights the weakness in the market," said Eric Wittenauer, futures analyst with A.G. Edwards in St. Louis, Missouri. "I would anticipate the market will continue the downtrend further today and into next week as we have hit some stiff resistance at the $3.21 (a lb) level, and then off of the US durable goods orders, combined with the home sales data today, the downtrend looks to be in place."
Copper for March delivery was down 3.40 cents to $3.0980 a lb by 11:03 am EST (1603 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, near the lower end of its early $3.0730-$3.12 trading range.
Volumes were estimated at 3,435 lots by 10:00 am. On December 17, the benchmark March contract dropped to a nine-month low of $2.8530, but has been in a sharp rebound ever since, due to stronger copper prices in Shanghai which suggested a possible return of Chinese buyers back into the market. New single-family home sales declined 9 percent from a downwardly revised pace of 711,000 in October, the Commerce Department said.