US copper jumps 1.7 pct as potential fiscal deal emerges

NEW YORK Dec 31 (Reuters) - U.S. copper prices jumped over 1 percent on Monday on news that U.S. Senate Republicans appeared to be coalescing around a potential solution to the "fiscal cliff" crisis.

U.S. March copper futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange were up 1.7 percent at $3.6505 per lb at 1:01 p.m. EDT (1701 GMT), having risen just over 1 percent as news of the tentative deal broke.