By Millie Munshi
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell to the lowest price in almost a week on signs the global recession is slashing demand for the metal used in homes, cars and appliances.
Inventories monitored by the London Metal Exchange soared 5 percent, the biggest gain since Sept. 5, to 477,675 metric tons today, the highest total since November 2003. World economic growth will be 0.5 percent this year, the weakest postwar pace, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday. Before today, copper had plunged 63 percent since June 30 as the cooling global economy reduced demand and supplies increased.
“The market is currently engulfed in bearish sentiment, manifested on a daily basis in economic data that underscore the severity of the current economic malaise,” Gayle Berry, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London, said in a report today. “With consumption in many key markets now in decline, the build in LME stocks has been relentless.”
Copper futures for March delivery fell 5.05 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $1.4455 a pound at 9:04 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the price touched $1.421, the lowest for a most-active contract since Jan. 23.
On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months rose $130, or 3.9 percent, to $3,200 a metric ton ($1.45 a pound). The price reached a record $8,940 on July 2.
To contact the reporter on this story: Millie Munshi in New York at mmunshi@bloomberg.net
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