LME copper for delivery in three months was at $3,900/3,910 a tonne, up from Friday's London close of $3,830. In Asia, copper remained in a tight $10 range after the price rebounded further to $3,895 late on Friday.
On Friday, the metal, which is used in construction and electronics, at one point tumbled more than 6 percent on a fund sell-off from the previous day's record $4,018 a tonne before bargain hunting trimmed the losses.
"For copper, business is almost dead as no one, except funds, wants to take fresh positions after on Friday's big move," said an LME trader in Tokyo.
"Either for buying or selling, the market is very dangerous for investors." He put support for copper at $3,750 a tonne in the short term, with resistance at $4,000.
With copper's rebound to near $3,900 from Friday's low of $3,752, another trader said some market forces appeared to have been trying to hold prices near to recent peaks before the annual LME Week gathering starting from next week.
During the LME Week, the copper industry normally holds talks for physical contracts between suppliers and buyers for next year, he said. The market has long expected a correction in red hot copper, which has soared from a low of $2,885 a tonne in January on voracious Chinese demand, tight supply and speculative buying.
New supply coming on line is expected to push the price down, but no one knows exactly when. On Friday, LME stocks of copper fell 1,350 tonnes to 61,475 tonnes from Thursday's level and down from just under 1 million tonnes in April 2002.
Cancelled warrants, metal earmarked for release, accounted for some 16 percent of total LME stocks. Shanghai copper futures were higher, with the most-active January contract at 37,150 yuan a tonne, up 550 yuan from Friday's settlement. Other metals were mostly higher. Aluminium was at $1,931/1,936 a tonne, up from Friday's close of $1,929. Zinc rose to $1,465/1,475 a tonne from $1,459. Nickel was unchanged at 11,925/12,025 a tonne. Lead was at $948/952 a tonne versus $945, while tin was barely changed at $6,250/6,275.