Copper prices lower early on Monday and hit their lowest level in three weeks as traders reduced risk amid persistent concerns about the recovery and in front of key inflation data due Tuesday from top-consumer China. A downgrade of Greece's credit rating only added to the economic pessimism surrounding the broader market in recent weeks, dragging US equities into negative territory at one point and holding a heavy weight over the industrial metals complex at the start of the new trading week.
"We're still in this phase where people are starting to worry about the economic recovery," Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith said. In New York, the July COMEX copper contract fell 2.15 cents to settle at $4.0345 per lb.