Copper prices fell for the third straight session in New York on signs that demand may ease in China, the world’s biggest user of industrial metals. Inventories monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped 45 percent last week, the most since February. In April, new lending fell in China, raising speculation that the country’s economic rebound will slow. Before today, copper surged 52 percent this year as Chinese imports climbed. Copper lost “momentum as arriving inventory eases” tight supplies, Alex Heath, the head of industrial-metals trading at RBC Capital Markets in London, said in a report. “The change in sentiment also has much to do with China’s new bank lending easing.” Copper futures for July delivery dropped 6.6 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $2.0795 a pound at 9:11 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price dropped 1.9 percent in the previous two sessions. On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months dropped $135, or 2.9 percent, to $4,550 a ton ($2.06 a pound). The price reached a record $8,940 on July 2.

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