Copper Near 3-Month Low

London copper edged lower on Tuesday, trading near its weakest level in almost three months, with risk appetite curbed by escalating trade tensions between the United States and top industrial metals consumer China, Reuters reported. Zinc edged down to trade at the last session’s lowest price since early August as rising inventories weighed on the market. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.3% at $6,733.50 a ton, not far above Monday’s low of $6,702.50, which was its weakest since April 4. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped 0.4% to settle at 51,630 yuan ($7,878) a ton. Meanwhile, benchmark LME zinc was down 0.4% at $2,847 a ton after dropping earlier in the session to $2,835, matching Monday’s low, which was the weakest since Aug. 7. In China, zinc prices fell to their lowest since early August at 22,380 yuan a ton. Daily data showed zinc on-warrant inventories—those not earmarked for delivery—in warehouses certified by the LME rose 2,300 tons to 241,525 tons.