Commodities fell to a one-month low, slipping for a second day, after the U.S. Federal Reserve said that the world’s biggest economy faces “significant downside risks,” boosting speculation raw-material demand will falter. The 24-member Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index dropped as much as 1.5 percent to 629.25, the lowest level since Aug. 19. Copper tumbled into a so-called bear market, slumping for a fifth day and crude oil fell to a two-week low. Asian stocks lost 3.3 percent as a plan by the Fed to buy more long-term bonds failed to lift investor confidence. Fed policy makers said yesterday they will replace much of the short-term debt in their portfolio with longer-term Treasuries in an effort to keep the economy from relapsing into a recession. “The global growth scenario continues to be clouded, all the commodities were hit,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets Asia Pacific Pty Ltd. in Sydney. “There is a lot of bearishness.” The world economy will expand 4 percent this year and in 2012, the International Monetary Fund said on Sept. 20, cutting forecasts made in June for a 4.3 percent expansion this year and 4.5 percent in 2012. “My fears for a world slowdown are playing out,” said David Thurtell, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in Singapore. “As a barometer of the pace of the world industrial production cycle, the copper price is falling.” Bear Market Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell as much as 3.1 percent to $8,039.75 per metric ton, the lowest price since Nov. 17. That’s 21 percent below the record $10,190 set on Feb. 15, more than the 20 percent drop that’s regarded by some investors as signaling a bear market. Copper may drop to as low as $7,000 as concerns grow about the global economic slowdown, Im Byeong Cheol, an executive at South Korea’s Public Procurement Service, said on Sept. 21. The contract hasn’t traded below $7,000 since July 2010. November-delivery oil fell as much as 2.1 percent to $84.15 per barrel, the lowest level since Sept. 6, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for November fell as much as 1.7 percent to $108.50 on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. Wheat for December delivery fell as much as 1.2 percent to $6.585 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the lowest price since July 12. December-delivery corn lost 0.8 percent to $6.8025 per bushel, while soybeans for November delivery declined 0.4 percent to $13.1475 per bushel. To contact the reporter on this story: Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at rdobson4@bloomberg.net

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