Comex copper closed with pared losses on Monday after support levels held in the face of local selling, according to traders.
A dearth of buyers at the open allowed funds sellers to send copper prices sharply lower, where they stayed for most of the session. Support held, however, even though some ring traders, who were short, tried throughout the day to send prices even lower, dealers said.
Once it became clear that selling had subsided, some speculators grabbed copper near the lows, cutting the metal's losses by more than half.
"It was all done in lighter volume than usual with many major markets closed.
Trading was mostly technical.
Stops were hit as we were taking out previous lows," said David Meagre, Aaron Trading metals analyst in Chicago.
On Monday, Hong Kong, Sydney and the London Metal Exchange remained shut for Easter break. Global metal markets were closed on Good on Friday.
Comex active may copper closed down 1.65 cents at $1.2885 a lb., well above its session low of $1.2610. It peaked at $1.3075.
Next most-active July lost 1.70 cents to $1.2900 and the other contracts settled down 1.55 to 1.70 cents.
Comex estimated final copper volume at 14,000 lots, up from Thursday's turnover of 12,576 contracts.
Open interest as of last on Thursday was 75,631 lots, down 1,501 lots.
Open interest has been falling and funds have unloaded a sizeable chunk of their long copper positions in recent weeks, according to the latest CFTC Commitment of Traders report.
The net speculative long position in Comex copper futures fell to 9,209 lots as of April 6, down from 14,759 lots as of March 30. Non-reportable long positions slipped to 7,118 contracts from 8,734 lots a week. April 6 open interest fell to 76,267 from 82,822 lots at March 30.
While support for May futures held above the prior low of $1.2560 hit on March 9, one broker said local ring traders were short copper and looking to fill the gap between $1.2470 and $1.2560 on May's chart.
May managed to settle just above the April 5 low of $1.2880, which chartists viewed as a positive short-term sign. Resistance was pegged at recent highs of $1.2920 and $1.32.
On Thursday, LME copper warehouse stocks fell 3,050 tonnes to 173,550 tonnes. Comex inventories were down 2740 short tons at 204,074 short tons.
London Metal Exchange three-month copper ended the on Thursday evening kerb at $2,872 per tonne.
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