US MIDDAY: copper up

In New York, the key March COMEX contract firmed 2.30 cents to settle at $3.7525 per lb, maintaining momentum near the prior session's 2-1/2-month peak at $3.7590. Short-term technical support was also seen, with the cross-over of some simple moving averages.
"You're getting a bullish cross-over, with the 10-day taking out the 100-day (moving average) ... the 20-day is taking out the 50-day. Those are positive cross-over," said Charles Nedoss, senior account manager and metals analyst with Olympus Futures in Chicago. Volumes stood at about 52,000 lots in late New York business, a little more than 20 percent above the 30-day norm, but down from Tuesday's pace, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.