US copper futures fell sharply early on Thursday as a large stock increase at the London Metal Exchange weighed on the market, but the possibility of a strike at Chile's Codelco limited the decline, brokers said.

They added that dealings remained light as traders headed into the new year and the market really had only one full-day session left to trade.

The New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX copper market will close early, at 12:05 pm, Friday and will be shut on Monday for the New Year's Day holiday. Trading will resume on Tuesday.

By 10:37 am EST (1537 GMT), benchmark March copper futures were down 3.30 cents at $2.0360 a lb., a penny off the lower end of its $2.0260-$2.0690 trading range.

Spot January was off 3.30 cents at $2.1610 a lb., moving between $2.1550 and $2.1925. Volume at 10 am was estimated at a modest 3,000 lots.

Copyright Reuters, 2005