US MIDDAY: copper lower

Copper ended lower on Monday, failing to sustain an earlier rise as investors weighed the potential bullish impact of a big mining acquisition against a more subdued Chinese presence at the start of 2011. Copper's seemingly indecisive mood was exacerbated by a two-day market holiday in top consumer China and the week-long CESCO/CRU mining conference in Chile, where the industry's biggest and brightest are gathered to discuss market trends.
In New York, COMEX copper for May delivery eased 0.35 cent to settle at $4.2550 per lb. Trading volume in New York slowed to around 26,700 lots by 2 pm EDT (1800 GMT), a little more than 40 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.