BLBG: Copper Futures Decline on Renewed Concern Demand Will Slump
Copper prices fell for the third time in four sessions on speculation the deepening global recession will continue to erode demand for the metal used in manufacturing and construction.
Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 742,000 workers in March, ADP Employer Services said today. The decline topped forecasts by economists. Manufacturing in China, the world’s biggest copper user, fell for an eighth straight month, a private report showed. Before today, copper tumbled 52 percent in the past year.
“No one is in any doubt that the market is in sizeable supply-demand surplus,” Alex Heath, the head of RBC Capital Markets industrial-metals trading in London, said in a report. “It simply must be, given the astonishing collapse in demand for industrial metals.”
Copper futures for May delivery dropped 4.05 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $1.804 a pound at 9:34 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months fell $63.50, or 1.6 percent, to $3,976.50 a metric ton ($1.80 a pound). The price reached a record $8,940 on July 2.
