As metals overall extended their losses, copper fell to its lowest price in 19 months. Recession fears among investors dampened the outlook across commodities.

Fearing an economic slowdown, investors are fleeing industrial materials, assuming everything, from construction of new homes to the assembly of new electric vehicles, is about to slowdown. Copper, seen as a bellwether of the economic outlook, is now trading well below $8,000 per ton, as across the board, metals slumped at levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.

In a report, Commerzbank AG analyst Carsten Fritsch said, “Sentiment in US industry is becoming more gloomy, in other words; we interpret this as a sign that the US economy is losing momentum. Concerns about a global recession continue to predominate on the metals markets.”

The latest forecasts from Bloomberg Economics is estimating the chances of a recession at 38%.

Meanwhile, Citic Futures Co. said in a note that it sees metal prices dropping over the medium to long term, however there could be a temporary technical correction in the near term.

Zinc is also expected to drop, as China now prepares a domestic surplus in its stocks, for shipment to the West, making up for the shortfall produced after Russia invaded Ukraine. UBS AG predicts the merging of deteriorating demand and China’s excess stocks entering the market to remove any tightness in the supply of the metal.

On the London Metal Exchange, Copper’s fall was as deep as 5.1%, to $7,597 per ton, the lowest price since early December 2020. It finally settled at a price of $7,670 per ton. Tin fell 2.3%, Aluminum fell 2.9%, and nickel, the only metal to gain in trading, rose, 0.7%.

Precious metals continued to drop, as Gold fell 2.2%, Silver dropped 3.7%, and Platinum was down 2.5%.