Copper fell in London for the first day in four as some investors sold the metal after it reached a three-month high yesterday, along with zinc and lead. Copper’s 14-day relative strength index, a gauge of whether a commodity is overbought or oversold, yesterday reached 69.6. It neared the level of 70 that signals a potential impending drop to some analysts who study technical charts. Zinc’s RSI climbed to 68.9 yesterday and lead was at 65.5. “Today some profit-booking is expected,” Edelweiss Comtrade Ltd. said in a report. Copper for three-month delivery dropped $50, or 0.5 percent, to $9,790 a metric ton by 9:49 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange. Copper for September delivery declined 0.4 percent to $4.4515 a pound on the Comex in New York. Zinc and lead retreated. Prices also slid as European and U.S. officials struggled to resolve sovereign-finance issues. European government chiefs are meeting on July 21 for the second time in a month as they aim to break a deadlock over a new Greek rescue that has spooked investors. U.S. legislators are working to reach agreement on a deficit-cutting deal by an Aug. 2 deadline. “Everything depends on these really critical issues that are coming up, with fiscal issues in both U.S. and Europe,” said Stephen Briggs, an analyst at BNP Paribas SA in London. “There is still much uncertainty there.” Housing Starts Copper yesterday reached $9,873.50 a ton, the highest price since April 12, as stronger-than-estimated U.S. housing starts signaled improved demand. Declines today may be limited by concern about supply that was fanned last week when Rio Tinto Group said its second-quarter production of the metal declined. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, said today its copper output fell 6 percent from a year earlier to 272,300 tons in the quarter through June. Production at Chile’s Escondida, the biggest copper mine, dropped 8 percent in the year through last month because of lower ore grades, BHP said. Vale SA will miss a target of producing 1 million tons of copper by 2015, Jose Carlos Martins, director for marketing and sales, said yesterday. Zinc for three-month delivery on the LME declined 0.9 percent to $2,468 a ton after reaching $2,492 yesterday. Lead, which touched $2,779 a ton yesterday, fell 0.6 percent to $2,754. Nickel was little changed at $24,120 a ton. Consumption was 124,000 tons in May, below refined-metal output of 125,700 tons, the International Nickel Study Group said in a report e-mailed yesterday. That was the first surplus since December. Aluminum was unchanged at $2,550 a ton and tin declined 0.1 percent to $27,860 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Agnieszka Troszkiewicz in London at atroszkiewic@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

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