Copper fell the most in more than two weeks in Shanghai, tracking an overnight decline in London, on skepticism U.S. measures to shore up banks and unlock credit markets will quickly lift the global recession. Oil and equities also dropped yesterday after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he’s still “exploring a range of different structures” to bail out lenders. The S&P 500 Index plunged the most since Jan. 20 after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress that increased liquidity from the central bank will be “no panacea” for lenders. Investors are “troubled by the lack of detail contained in announcements on the U.S. financial stability plan,” David Moore, chief commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. said in an e-mail today. Copper for May delivery, the most active contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, dropped as much as 3.9 percent to 28,510 yuan ($4,172) a metric ton, and traded at 28,780 yuan at 10:30 a.m. local time. It gained 18 percent the past six days. London Metal Exchange copper fell as much as 1.3 percent to $3,440 a ton, extending yesterday’s 2.7 percent decline. It last traded at $3,480. A jump in global inventories also weighed on metals prices. Copper stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange rose to the highest since November 2003. Aluminum inventories are at a record and nickel stockpiles are the highest since July 1995. Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum fell a third day, down 0.6 percent to $1,390 a ton. Zinc and nickel were little changed at $1,163.25 and $10,795 a ton respectively. Lead and tin hadn’t traded.

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