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Copper prices headed for their fifth consecutive weekly decline on Friday as the United States and China intensified their confrontation over trade.
Investors fear the trade dispute will damage economic growth and weaken the outlook for metals demand. Industrial metals prices are down sharply from last summer when the confrontation began.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) did not trade in official rings but was bid down 0.9 per cent at $6,043 a tonne.
The metal used in power and construction has lost around 1.4 per cent this week and is trading near Monday's 3-1/2 month low of $6,007.50.
Harsher trade rhetoric from Washington and Beijing was pushing prices lower, said Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar, but he added that copper's solid fundamentals meant prices were likely to recover to around $6,500 by the end of the year.
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