A lack of fresh drivers kept US copper futures steady in Wednesday morning trading.
The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was flat at $2.7720 per lb.
The focus of market participants - and the main driver of direction - remains the US-Chinese trade talks.
"We expect further upside in copper prices over the next month due to a stronger macro sentiment, which should prompt a normalization in copper's positioning," Fastmarkets MB analyst Boris Mikanikrezai said.
In precious metals, the Comex price of gold for April slipped 40 cents or 0.1% lower to $1,313.60 per oz. Trade has ranged narrowly from $1,311.10 to $1,317.60 so far today.
Currency moves and data releases
The dollar index was up by 0.23% at 96.97.In other commodities, the Texas light sweet crude oil spot price was up by 0.98% at $53.62 per barrel.In data on Tuesday, US job openings increased by 169,000 to a seasonally adjusted 7.3 million in December 2018, according to the Labor Department's monthly job openings and labor turnover survey (Jolts). That is the highest reading since the series started in 2000.Today, the US CPI was unchanged while core CPI was up by 0.2% gain. Later, crude oil inventories are due for release.