Copper, Zinc, Nickel, Tin all Drop

Many commodities took a big hit Friday, as copper, zinc, nickel, tin, gold, silver, platinum and palladium were all trending down, with copper, platinum and palladium taking the biggest hits as measured by percentages, and with platinum and palladium, also falling by the most in U.S. dollars.

Copper has been the major story this month regarding commodities, as it plunged to its lowest levels this week in three months, with falling demand for scrap-metal weighed on the base metal. Most of that is from the slowing demand in China, which has been working on slowing down its heated up economy.

For the last three months, discounts for scrap copper plunged by 25 percent. This is a dramatic turn around from September where copper prices got a boost from the implementation of further stimulus in the United States and Europe.

One of the best leading indicators for copper prices is scrap, and demand has been weakening for the last quarter, even with the bump in copper prices for September.

Copper futures fell to about $3.70 a pound on the Comex in New York for December delivery, at just before 1:30 PM EDT. For the week it is down two percent. Copper futures are trading about 40 cents above No. 2 scrap. That's ten cents above the 30 cents discount it traded at against copper in the 3rd quarter.

Credit Suisse (CS) estimates copper production in 2013 to be at 293,000 metric tons, in contrast to the 102,000 ton shortfall in 2012.

On the London Metal Exchange, copper for December delivery was down to $8,130 a ton ($3.69 a pound), a decline of 1.3 percent.