Copper capped its best monthly performance in nearly a year with a 2 percent loss on Monday, as the dollar rose and enthusiasm for Europe's debt deal gave way to the view the region's economic problems are far from over. In New York, the key December COMEX contract dropped 7.40 cents, or 2 percent, to settle at $3.6320 per lb, after dealing from $3.4890 to $3.7425.
Futures volumes remained on the light side at the start of the week, with about 50,000 lots traded in New York - about 20 percent below the 30-day average, according to Thomson Reuters preliminary data.