The December 2026 copper contract was quoted at $6.4810 per pound at 08:52:15 UTC (14:22:15 IST) on September 16 in Yahoo Finance’s delayed COMEX series. Expressed in cents, that is 648.10 cents per pound, not $648.10.
Reading the range in consistent units
The source reported a low of $6.4400 and a high of $6.5045 per pound. The $0.0645 span equals 6.45 cents. The observed quote was 4.10 cents above the low and 2.35 cents below the high, putting it beyond the midpoint of the range available at that time.
Copper markets use several currencies, weight units and delivery locations. A COMEX pound-based quote should not be compared directly with a London dollar-per-tonne value without converting the units and matching the dates and contract terms. Even after conversion, different delivery conditions can leave a basis between benchmarks.
The industrial hedging scale
CME’s copper hedging guide specifies 25,000 pounds for the standard HG futures contract. At the observed price, that represents $162,025 of notional copper exposure. A one-cent-per-pound price change equals $250 across the standard quantity; the full reported range represents $1,612.50 before fees.
The matched HGZ26 December history places September 15 at $6.4435 per pound. The snapshot was therefore $0.0375, or 0.58%, higher; across 25,000 pounds, that is $937.50 before costs. These exposure calculations are not recommended position sizes. Futures margin and physical delivery costs remain separate. This AI-assisted account makes no unsupported assertion about mine supply, Chinese demand or the cause of the quoted move.