Copper Posts Fifth Straight Weekly Loss and Lowest Settle Since July Ahead of China's October Data

Copper heads into the new week after its fifth straight weekly decline and its lowest settlement since early July, with traders looking to China's October economic data, due Sunday evening New York time, for a read on demand from the world's largest consumer of the metal.

Front-month Comex copper for November delivery settled at $6.0795 a pound on Friday, Nov. 13, down 13.85 cents, or 2.23%, for the week, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It was the lowest settlement since July 8, 2026, and the contract has now fallen 56.30 cents, or 8.48%, over five weeks, its longest losing streak since August 2024. Comex copper is 10.64% below its record settlement of $6.8035 reached on Sept. 9, 2026, though it remains up 7.98% for the year.

London prices at four-month lows

On the London Metal Exchange, benchmark three-month copper fell 1.6% to $13,371.50 a metric ton as of 1700 GMT on Friday after touching $13,358, its weakest since July 17, Reuters reported via Mining.com. The metal was on course for a 2.9% weekly drop, its steepest since the week ended March 20.

Goldman Sachs attributed the slide to a selloff in AI-related equities that followed the Democratic victory in the U.S. midterm elections and worsened after Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang resigned. Copper is exposed to that trade through its use in electrification and data centers. The bank said the LME price had fallen about 7% over the past month and described the correction as driven by positioning rather than weaker fundamentals, Business Recorder reported, citing a Goldman note. Goldman added that copper positioning could stay subdued if equity markets began pricing in an earlier slowdown in AI capital spending.

Tight supply in China

Physical indicators in China point the other way. Copper stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses fell a further 18.3% during the week to 27,642 tons, the lowest since December 2023, and the Yangshan copper premium, a gauge of China's appetite for imports paid on top of LME prices, hit a record $285 a ton on Friday, Reuters reported.

Other base metals also weakened as a strong U.S. dollar weighed on the complex. Aluminium fell 0.6% to $3,011 a ton after touching its lowest since Oct. 15, zinc slipped 0.3% to $3,704, nickel dropped 1.6% to $15,950 and tin shed 0.2% to $46,580, while lead rose 0.4% to $1,893.50 after Shanghai inventories fell to a six-year low. Exchange-traded funds focused on industrial metals lost 2.75% for the week and recorded $32 million of net outflows, ETF Action data showed.

China data first up

China's National Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to release October industrial output, retail sales, fixed-asset investment and property investment at 10 a.m. Beijing time on Monday, or 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, with 70-city home prices half an hour earlier, MLQ.ai reported. In September, industrial output rose 5.5% from a year earlier and retail sales 1.1%, while fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% and real estate development investment 20.6% in the first nine months of the year.

Lundgreen's Investor Insights, in a note co-produced with Yiyi Capital, forecast October retail sales growth of 0.8% and a 6.6% decline in fixed-asset investment for January-October.

Energy markets also reopen Sunday evening after weekend reports from the Gulf. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said tankers struck sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz and that they launched six drones at a U.S. radar at Bahrain's al-Riffa air base, which Bahrain said it intercepted; U.S. Central Command had not commented on Sunday's claim, Investing.com reported.