US copper futures finished lower Monday as a stronger tone in the US dollar and a failed attempt to breach overhead technical resistance encouraged the weaker price action, analysts said. Copper for July delivery settled down 2.25 cents at $3.8095 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division.
The session range ran from $3.7705 to $3.8505, the highest level for the July contract since May 19. By 1 pm EDT (1700 GMT), volumes were estimated at 25,164 lots. Final volumes on Friday totalled 14,833 lots.
Copper loses some of its supply-sided underpinnings after striking workers lifted a blockade in Peru's Moquegua province which severed access to a smelter and mine owned by Southern Copper Corp, Peru's largest copper miner. On the supply side, Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, is studying an option owned by a smaller state miner to buy a 49 percent stake in the Las Bronces mine, currently undergoing a $1.74 billion expansion by owner Anglo American Plc.