Copper prices drop; precious metals mixed

Copper prices fell on Tuesday in its biggest one-day decline in a month on concerns that recent price increases could hurt demand in China.

May copper was 11 cents lower to $3.82 per pound in New York, while three-month copper dropped $175 to $8,400 per tonne, or $3.81 per pound, in London even though inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses dropped another 1.3 percent during the session to 139,550 tonnes.

Stockpile declines in London are now at 29 percent since the beginning of the year, but inventories monitored in Shanghai have more than doubled so far this year.

Meanwhile, precious metals prices were mixed.

April platinum added $25.40 to $2,267 per troy ounce in New York, but April gold dropped $17.70 to $966.50 per troy ounce and May silver fell 34 cents to $19.84 per troy ounce.