Copper Prices Hit Four Week Low

Bloomberg reported that copper prices have hit a four-week low following the release of data showing weak industrial profits in China. According to the news outlet, Chinese industrial companies reported the biggest decline in profit since October 2011.
As quoted in the publication:

Industrial earnings in China, the world’s biggest copper user, tumbled 8.8 percent from a year earlier, with the largest drops in producers of coal, oil and metals, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. Glencore Plc, the Swiss commodities trader and miner, sank to a record low after Investec Plc warned that there was little value for shareholders should weakness in commodity prices persist.
“We continue to use the Chinese economic malaise as a barometer for copper demand moving forward,” David Meger, the director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “Ongoing demand concerns continues to be a drag in the copper market.”
Copper futures for December delivery on the Comex dropped 1.7 percent to $2.245 a pound at 10:37 a.m. in New York. Earlier, the metal fell to $2.232, the lowest since Aug. 26.

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