"It's a currency market now. Everything depends on the Japanese yen," said one. "The yen is firmer this morning and if the strength continues, we should see some support in copper." LME copper ended $8 higher at $1,628 on Thursday.

Another Singapore-based trader saw immediate resistance at $1,650 and support at $1,600.

However, most traders said they remained conservative over the dollar/yen movements and did not expect much trading interest from crisis-hit Asia.

"Demand and liquidity are the main problems. The Asia market doesn't have any," another trader said.

The International Monetary Fund warned Japan on Thursday the worst may not be over for the yen, unless the new government took bolder steps to revive its moribund economy and fix its banking system.