Copper declined for the first time in four days, tracking a decline in equities, as the global slowdown damped the outlook for metals demand. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell for the first day in three as companies cut profit forecasts and sold goods at discounts to bolster their balance sheets. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has slumped 7.9 percent this year as companies from Microsoft Corp. to Procter & Gamble Co. reported disappointing earnings. “Sentiment is just not good,” Wang Guanyun, a trader at China International Futures Co. (Beijing), said today. London Metal Exchange copper for delivery in three months slid as much as 2.3 percent to $3,338 a metric ton, and stood at $3,395 at 10:58 a.m. in Singapore. April-delivery copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose as much as 2 percent to 27,650 yuan ($4,045) a ton. Immediate- delivery copper in Changjiang, Shanghai’s biggest cash market, traded at 28,150 yuan a ton yesterday. “There’s a little bit of backwardation in the Chinese market because reported stockpiles are so low,” said Yide Futures Brokerage Co. analyst Yang Zhenqiang. “But really there’s just hand to mouth buying at the moment.” Backwardation, when nearby prices are more expensive than longer-dated contracts, suggests less availability of the metal. Inventory in Shanghai warehouses last stood at 16,567 tons, 76 percent lower than last year’s high of 67,824 tons. Reserves monitored by the LME were at 499,950 tons yesterday, the highest since November 2003. Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum fell 0.8 percent to $1,427 a ton, and lead slipped 1 percent to $1,178 a ton. Zinc added 0.9 percent to $1,190 a ton, while nickel and tin had not traded as of 11 a.m. in Singapore.

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