LONDON (Reuters) - Copper fell on Monday due to growing uncertainty about the health of the world's largest economies following a historic low reading for China's services sector index and a disappointing U.S. jobs report last week, although threats of supply disruptions helped limit further falls in prices.
Growing unease about global recovery prospects hit demand for riskier assets such as equities, which fell sharply in Europe, while the dollar rose to a one-month high against a basket of currencies after higher-yielding currencies were also caught-up in the market's risk aversion.
A stronger dollar makes commodities priced in the U.S. unit more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Latest data from China showed the country's fledging services sector grew in August at its lowest pace on record, adding to concern about the pace of economic growth in the world's larger economies. This followed a weak labour market report from the United States on Friday, which showed employment ground to a halt in August.
Benchmark copper fell to $8,973 a tonne by 0930 GMT, down more than 1 percent from Friday's close at $9,076. The metal, used in power and construction, earlier fell to a one-week low of $8,969 a tonne.
"Copper is stuck between the uncertainty about economic growth and its own tight fundamentals," said Robin Bhar, analyst at Credit Agricole.
"On the one hand the economic forces are bearing down on it but on the other hand the tight fundamentals are helping, particularly the amount of labour unrest in the industry and threats to further losses in production."
Workers at Peru's No. 3 copper mine Cerro Verde said they will launch a 48-hour strike on September 7. Peru is the world's No.2 producer of copper. Continued...
