Coronavirus cases in Chile surged past 1 million, while infections across Latin America, which has some of the world's biggest copper mines, are also rising.
There are concerns about China deleveraging; that seems to be uppermost in a lot of people's minds. How much more tightening is there to come? And the Chinese economy seems to be slowing anyway.
Copper inventories are rising on the LME and it seems that demand for the time being has come off the boil, which is a bit concerning because we're going into the seasonally strong part of the year.
The April-June premiums are the highest since the same quarter in 2015. In January to March, the premium was $130 per tonne. This is a third consecutive quarterly rise in premiums.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 1.3% at $8,859 a tonne by 0450 GMT, having hit $8,850 a tonne earlier in the session, its lowest since March 19.
Escalating tensions between China and the West, as well as potential US tax hikes also hit sentiment and led to investors buying into safe-haven dollar.