By Millie Munshi Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Copper futures fell in New York, capping the biggest weekly decline in a month, as slumping equity markets renewed concern that the global recession will curb demand for raw materials including metals. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index headed for a 14 percent drop this week, the third straight decline and the most since the five days ended Oct. 10. Copper traders follow equity markets as a gauge of economic activity. The metal, used in pipes and wires, is down 7.9 percent this week, the most in a month. ``Copper will continue to track the equity markets as people look for some signs of hope,'' said Matthew Zeman, a trader at LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago. Copper futures for March delivery lost 0.1 cent, or 0.1 percent, to $1.579 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the price gained as much as 4.2 percent as the S&P 500 index rose as much as 2.8 percent. Copper's price, down by more than half since June 30, will recover in the ``long term'' as mining companies reduce production and limit supplies, said Evy Hambro, who manages the world's largest mining and gold funds at BlackRock Inc. There are ``fantastic opportunities today'' for long-term investors, Hambro said in Bloomberg Television interview in London. ``Copper fundamentals are still very strong but we do have this absence of demand right now.'' The metal's price has plunged 63 percent from a record $4.2605 in May as the world economy slipped into a recession. Consumption of raw materials, including copper, has tumbled as much as 30 percent this quarter from a year earlier, according to Andrew Keen, a Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. analyst. Economic Outlook ``Further deterioration in the global GDP outlook could act as a trigger for even lower industrial-metals prices,'' Joel Crane, a metals strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in New York, said today in a report, referring to the broadest measure of economic activity. ``Despite the recent sharp pullback in prices, copper remains the most richly priced industrial metal.'' The metal may fall to as low as $1.24 a pound as the global economy continues to slump, Crane forecast. The last time the most-active contract was that low was in September 2004. Copper may rise in 2010 as production cuts produce an ``eventual recovery in metals prices,'' Crane said. On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months rose $60, or 1.7 percent, to $3,540 a metric ton ($1.61 a pound). To contact the reporter on this story: Millie Munshi in New York at mmunshi@bloomberg.net.

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