Industrial Metals Slide on China Demand Angst, Rising Inventories

(Bloomberg) — Copper and other industrial metals slumped ahead of China’s weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, with a regional increase in inventories and plunging consumer prices amplifying worries about a deepening slowdown in the world’s top commodities consumer.

Prices for the metal viewed as a global economic bellwether dropped as much as 1.3% on the London Metal Exchange (LME), hitting the lowest level in more than two months.