Beijing : London copper slipped for a second session on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said any trade deal with China would "need a different structure" and Washington launched a probe into auto imports that could lead to new tariffs.
Copper had rallied at the start of the week after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the prospect of a U.S.-China trade war, following the imposition of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium, was "on hold".
Industrial metals are suffering "under the risk-off tone in the markets, following signs that trade negotiations between the U.S. and China are not progressing as well as initially thought," ANZ wrote in a note.
Copper is the "commodity most leveraged to the global economic cycle," it said. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.1 percent to $6,858.50 a tonne by 0419 GMT, extending a 1.6 percent drop from the previous session.