Copper prices drop 4 percent on LME

Base metals prices fell on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve issued a report predicting that economic growth in the United States could slow next year, dampening demand for copper and other metals used in construction and in industry.

March copper on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was 14 cents lower to $2.93 per pound ahead of Thursday’s closure of the market for the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the US, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell $270, or 4 percent, to $6,520 per tonne.

Some analysts are predicting that the price of copper on US markets could drop as low as $2.50 per pound on weak demand and gains in stockpiles.

LME inventories added 1,425 tonnes of copper on the session to 182,700 tonnes.

Aluminium was $23 lower to $2,521 per tonne while zinc dropped 6.3 percent, or $150 to $2,220 per tonne  and lead was down $135, or 4.4 percent to $2,915 per tonne.

Tin was $405 lower to $16,000 per tonne and nickel fell $700 to $29,600 per tonne.