LONDON- Base metals saw a sharp sell-off on Friday, with copper posting its biggest daily slide since the early days of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, as US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans sparked recession fears.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 6.4 percent at $8,764 per metric ton after earlier hitting $8,734, its lowest since August 8.
Over the last 15 years, copper, used in power and construction, saw a bigger daily fall only in March 2020, when the world grounded flights to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and in October 2011, during the Eurozone debt crisis.
“Growth-dependent metals have a bit of a disaster at the moment, with fears that tariffs would cause recession,” said Dan Smith, head of research at Amalgamated Metal Trading.
