Copper Drops for a Third Day in Asia on Global Equity Decline

SINGAPORE, Sept. 3 -- Copper declined for a third day in Asia as equities dropped on concern the global economic recovery is struggling and inventories gained.

    Copper has tumbled 4.7 percent in the past two days, pacing a drop in industrial metals, and tracking the slide in global stocks. Orders placed with U.S. factories rose less than forecast in July, and U.S. companies cut more jobs than forecast in August.

    "Over the last couple of weeks we're starting to get signals that perhaps we've gone a bit too far too fast," said Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney. "It was very hard for a lot of consumers, producers, fabricators to push these price rises through the market and as a consequence we started to see inventory build on the LME and Shanghai."

    Three-month delivery copper on the London Metal Exchange fell as much as 1 percent to $6,115 a metric ton, and traded at $6,150 a ton at 10:50 a.m. in Singapore. The contract fell to $6,025 yesterday, the lowest since Aug. 21.

    Copper for December delivery in New York lost 1.2 percent to $2.7920 a pound, and December-delivery copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange added 0.5 percent to 47,530 yuan ($6,983) a ton.

    Inventories of copper tallied by the London Metal Exchange stood at 302,950 tons yesterday, 68 percent higher than levels a year ago. Stockpiles in Shanghai are at a two-year high.

    U.S. equities fell for a fourth day yesterday, the longest losing streak for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index since May. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped as much as 0.4 percent to 112.00.

    Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum and zinc were little changed at $1,850 a ton and $1,820 a ton respectively. Lead was 0.5 percent lower at $2,105 a ton, nickel dropped 0.7 percent to $17,980 a ton, and tin was 1.3 percent lower at $13,775 by 10:26 a.m. in Singapore.

    (Source: Bloomberg)