By Allen Sykora Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Copper futures are marginally lower in early trading Thursday as the dollar upticks and some traders who previously bought now sell in order to capture profits. Around 8:50 a.m. EST (1350 GMT), March copper was down 0.80 cent to $3.1025 per pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. "You could call it a response to the move in the dollar or perhaps a bit of profit-taking," said John Gross, publisher of The Copper Journal. "But I wouldn't make much of this move in the very short term." The euro fell to $1.4871 from $1.4960 late Wednesday afternoon. The December dollar index was up 0.260 point to 75.525. Another analyst linked a pullback in copper to the stronger dollar, as well as the rise in London Metal Exchange warehouse stocks reported overnight. Yet overall, the metal remains not far from the 14-month highs hit on Wednesday, with Gross suggesting that the recent dollar weakness may have pushed copper higher than fundamentals might otherwise warrant. "It has remained higher despite the very significant increases in Comex and LME warehouse stocks and also despite the very difficult housing statistics yesterday," he said. LME copper warehouse stocks rose 6,450 metric tons Thursday to 420,550. On Wednesday, the government said U.S. October housing starts fell 10.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000. "The fundamentals, as I see it, don't support the price where it is," Gross said. "It has been driven by the weaker dollar." While the greenback is slightly higher so far Thursday morning, it nevertheless remains not far from its lows over the last month against the euro that were the weakest levels since August 2008. -By Allen Sykora, Dow Jones Newswires; 541-318-8765; allen.sykora@dowjones.com

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