Copper fell on Thursday as growing investor caution about the prospects of recovery after recent comments by the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke.
The metal also fell by a firmer dollar against the euro due to the resurgence of fears about Greek debt.
The benchmark copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange (LME, for its acronym in English) was trading at $ 7105 a tonne at 1019 GMT from a close of $ 7155 on Wednesday.
Bernanke pledged Wednesday to keep interest rates low, leading to copper and other risky assets a brief boost. However, other statements about an uncertain economic recovery began to hit market confidence on Thursday.
A report on new home sales in the United States on Wednesday said the economic weakness. Sales fell more than 11 percent to a record low, suggesting the sector, at the epicenter of the financial crisis has yet to recover fully.
"The market is very nervous about what is happening in the world economy. This floor we saw recently in the trading euro / dollar could continue. There are fears that Europe will fall behind in this recovery," said Arne Rasmussen, analyst at Danske Bank.
Investors were on the lookout for economic data in the U.S. will later in the day, such as requests weekly unemployment insurance and durable goods orders, besides the second day of testimony by Bernanke.
The stronger dollar also weighed on metals, strongly encouraging them to investors who have other currencies.
The euro traded near the lowest in nine months against the dollar on Thursday after comments from Standard and Poor's, that could cut Greece's debt rating by one or two levels within a month.
Among other industrial metals, aluminum was $ 2102 a tonne against $ 2137.
Zinc traded at $ 2186 from $ 2204, while lead was at $ 2182 from $ 2215.
The tin was quoted at $ 16,950 from $ 16,975, and nickel from $ 20,450 to $ 20,470.
Let's hope GM took cash and not a share swap. Also commodities will fall eventually when demand falls: There will be much more hardship soon with a looming Chinese collapse bigger than the Soviet Union's.
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