An investigation in the world’s largest consumer pulled down copper futures on Friday as the reddish metal fell toward its sharpest weekly losses in about three months, according to Bloomberg.
A team of investigators is probing whether companies at the Qingdao Port in China counted the same batches more than once when offering the industrial metal as collateral. Thus far this week, copper futures have fallen about 2.5 percent, marking its worst week since the middle of March.
“Worries that the slowdown in demand from Chinese financing deals after recent inventory fears in Qingdao Port are still the driver here,” states a Friday report authored by head of global metal sales Steven Scacalossi with TD Securities in Toronto, according to Bloomberg. “Momentum sellers are joining the fray.”
At 10:33 a.m. on Friday, copper futures dropped 1.39 percent, a 0.043-cent dip to $3.0475 per pound.
Reuters reports those losses were tempered by a strong hiring record in the U.S. last month. Last month’s healthy data released by the U.S. Department of Labor indicates the nation has recovered from the harsh winter.
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