US MIDDAY: copper down

Copper prices ended lower on Tuesday, falling from a fresh record high in London and succumbing to a vicious sell-off in the broader commodities complex that enabled corrections in many over-heated markets. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index dropped 2 percent in its sharpest one-day fall since mid-November as investors unwound many positions that had posted heady gains and braced for first-quarter index fund rebalancing.
COMEX copper for March delivery shed 8.85 cents, or 2 percent, to settle at $4.3690 per lb, pulling further away from Monday's record peak of $4.4980.