By Millie Munshi April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell for the second time in three days on concern that a widening debt crisis in Europe will derail the global recovery and curb demand for raw materials. Greece, Portugal and Spain had their credit ratings cut this week. Almost $1 trillion of worldwide equity value was erased on April 27 on concern that government budget deficits will spur defaults. Copper is headed for a third straight weekly drop, after nearly doubling in the year through March. “People are really worried about the situation in Europe,” said Lannie Cohen, the president of Capitol Commodity Services in Indianapolis. “As long as investors are feeling nervous, copper will struggle.” Copper futures for July delivery fell 2 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $3.3665 a pound at 10:14 a.m. on the Comex in New York. A close at that price would leave the metal down 4.7 percent this week. Record-low U.S. borrowing costs and booming growth in China will help to buoy copper, Cohen said. The Asian country is the world’s largest metals buyer, followed by the U.S. Federal Reserve policy makers yesterday restated a pledge to keep interest rates near zero for an “extended period” and said the labor market is beginning to improve. “Low rates are going to help stabilize prices,” Cohen said. “Once people feel a little less worried, they’ll start looking at the growth picture again. China is just going to keep building infrastructure in a major way that will boost copper in the long term.” The metal for delivery in three months climbed 0.1 percent to $7,410 a metric ton ($3.36 a pound) on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminum, lead and tin advanced. Nickel and zinc fell. --Editors: Steve Stroth, Daniel Enoch. To contact the reporters on the story: Millie Munshi in New York at mmunshi@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net.

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