Comex copper is softer but in the middle of its trading range from the last few weeks, and the direction the market breaks will determine the intermediate-term direction, says John Gross, publisher of The Copper Journal. He puts the lower end around the late-December lows near $1.25 per pound. "The fundamentals and sentiment of the market would suggest that prices should have continued their downtrend," he says. Instead, the market got back to the $1.62 area, the upper end of the range. "In the very short term, we have to view the move up that occurred from year-end until last Wednesday as a technical correction because the market was oversold," Gross says. Prices subsequently backed off again as inventories kept rising and economic data was soft. "So there's a very wide trading range between $1.25 and $1.60," Gross says. March copper is down 3.15 cents to $1.4560 a pound. (ALS)
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