New York, August 18: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) copper futures fell on Monday as the US dollar strengthened. Geopolitical uncertainty surrounding the outlook for the conflict in Ukraine also kept investors cautious.

By the close of trading, COMEX copper futures fell between 1.8 cents and 2.15 cents. The most actively traded September 2025 copper contract closed at $4.471 per pound, down 2.15 cents, or 0.48%, from the previous day.

The benchmark contract traded between 4.45 cents and 4.505 cents.

The US dollar index rose 0.3% on Monday, putting pressure on copper prices as the strong dollar makes dollar-denominated copper more expensive for buyers holding other currencies. Because copper prices have a strong negative correlation with the US dollar, some funds use this seesaw relationship between the US dollar and copper prices to build trading models and automatically generate buy and sell signals.

ING commodities strategist Ava Mant said the market tone was cautious at the start of the week as investors awaited the Trump-Zelensky meeting and any interest rate signals from the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole meeting.

Trump will meet with Zelensky on Monday after meeting with the Russian president on Friday.

Trump's team stressed on Sunday the need for compromise as he presses Ukraine to accept a deal to end the more than three-year conflict.

COMEX copper futures (nearby contract) are up 2.92% so far this month and 11.82% year-to-date, closing 6.97% higher on Monday than a year ago.

Positioning data showed that speculative funds increased their net long positions in the US COMEX copper futures market last week, after three consecutive weeks of reductions. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said that as of August 12, speculative funds held a net long position of 24,545 contracts in COMEX copper futures and options, up 6,513 contracts, or 36%, from a week earlier. This followed a net sale of 17,494 contracts the previous week.

As of Friday, August 15, copper inventories in warehouses registered with the Shanghai Futures Exchange stood at 86,361 tons, up 4,428 tons from 81,933 tons a week earlier.

External markets saw September copper futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fall 10 RMB to close at 78,950 RMB per ton on Monday. September bonded copper futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) fell 20 RMB to 70,050 RMB per ton.

Trading volume on the benchmark COMEX copper futures contract was 17,961 lots on Monday, compared to 19,192 lots the previous day. Open interest was 48,192 lots, compared to 49,371 lots the previous day.

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