Aug. 24 (MF Global) -- This market comment was written at 9:00 a.m. on August 23rd, US east coast time...

Metal prices fell yesterday, as continued concerns about a growing slowdown in the US and Europe-- aggravated by lingering debt worries-- outweighed the impact of upbeat Chinese copper import data. (More on the numbers later). Copper posted its third consecutive weekly loss last week, and is now down more than 10% so far this month, but among the base metals, ali has been the particularly weak one, getting to a new 2011 low of $2323 last week.