US copper futures edged higher early Thursday in tandem with a rebound in the price of crude oil, but the market's fragile technical state kept prices skewed to the downside. Copper for September delivery was trading up 1.65 cents at $3.44 a lb by 10:28 am EDT (1428 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division.
The morning range spanned from $3.4095 to $3.4655. Comex estimated futures volumes at 4,779 lots by 10 am. Copper still trying to stabilise from a recent technical sell-off that erased more than 17 percent of the market's value in a span of four weeks, trader said.