By 10:40 am EDT (1440 GMT), copper for December delivery was off 1.80 cents at $1.80 a lb at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, dealing from $1.7950 to $1.8285 a lb. Last Thursday, December copper set a contract peak at $1.8580.
Traders pegged support in active December copper at $1.7225 a lb, while resistance was seen at $1.8580 to $1.86.
Spot October tumbled 5.00 cents or 2.54 percent to $1.9180 as traders liquidated their long positions ahead of the contract's expiration at the end of trade. On Wednesday, the spot contract set a new record high at $1.9890 a lb. COMEX estimated copper volume at 10:00 am EDT reached 7,000 lots. In early New York trade, the euro rose to session highs at around $1.2167 from around $1.2130 shortly before the US data, but slipped back to trade at around $1.2142.