Copper futures market capped its four-day rise and ended lower on Wednesday on news that US consumer borrowing had declined more-than-expected and a surge in inventories of the industrial metal.
Copper futures for December delivery declined 3.2 cents, or 1.1%, to $2.924 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. On the LME, copper for three-month delivery slid 0.9 percent to $6,415 a metric ton ($2.91 a pound).
Copper inventories monitored by the London Metal Exchange rose 0.4% on Wednesday to the highest since May.
In economic news, consumer credit fell for a sixth month in the US, the longest decline since 1991, as banks curbed lending. The record $21.6 billion fall in borrowing, reported on Tuesday by the Federal Reserve, was more than five times larger than what analysts had forecast.
Copper has more than doubled this year, buoyed by record first-half imports by China, the world’s largest user of the metal. Shipments of refined copper to China fell 23% in July from June, when imports reached a record.
Among other LME metals, lead fell 2% and tin shed 1.2%. Aluminum also declined, while nickel and zinc were unchanged.