Key Highlights

● Copper closed at its lowest level since July on Thursday.

● Silver dropped $2.70 to $55.01 an ounce while gold hit a two-month low.

● China's CSI 300 entered a bear market, over a fifth below its peak.

● Brent crude rose to $113.17, its highest since May 4.

The industrial metal slid on Thursday on a day marked by a selloff in AI and power-infrastructure stocks, weakness in Asia and a broad retreat in metals.

Copper closed at its lowest level since July on Thursday, October 22, according to market data. The decline put the industrial metal in line with a broad retreat across commodities that excluded oil: gold slid to its lowest in more than two months, and silver dropped $2.70 to $55.01 an ounce.

Copper is often called a barometer of global economic health because it is used in everything from construction and wiring to electric vehicles and power grids. Market reports did not single out one trigger, but Thursday's slide came as several of the themes that have supported demand expectations came under pressure at once.

The AI power trade unwinds

One of the strongest stories for copper in recent years has been the build-out of data centers and the electrical grid to power artificial intelligence. Those projects need large amounts of copper for cables, transformers and cooling systems.

On Thursday, stocks tied to that build-out sank. GE Vernova (NYSE:GEV) was one of the three worst performers in the S&P 500, falling with no company-specific news as Meta-driven worries about financing for AI data centers spread. Quanta Services (NYSE:PWR), Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) and Eaton (NYSE:ETN) also fell, and peers MasTec (NYSE:MTZ), Dycom (NYSE:DY) and Primoris (NYSE:PRIM) hit 52-week lows.

The trigger was Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), which raised the low end of its 2026 capital spending range to $135–145 billion and reported negative free cash flow. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang added to the unease by saying "The demand of the capital is much greater than the availability of the capital." The market's focus shifted to whether AI customers can finance their plans.

Weakness in Asia

Asia, the largest source of copper demand, had a rough session. China's CSI 300 entered a bear market, closing more than a fifth below its June 22 peak. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei all fell sharply.

Weak Chinese equities do not always mean weaker physical demand, but they can sour sentiment toward the metals that China consumes in large volumes.

Mining shares and metals

Metal producers felt the pressure. Alcoa (NYSE:AA) fell after an analyst firm downgraded the aluminum maker to Hold from Buy. Gold miners sank as bullion retreated, and the VanEck Gold Miners ETF was sharply lower at midday.

The broader de-risking was evident elsewhere. Bitcoin fell toward $81,000, and a major bank said its clients pulled a record $14.8 billion from single stocks.

A split stock market

Wall Street's headline indexes told only part of the story. The Nasdaq Composite fell 694 points to 26,008.86, and the S&P 500 dropped 93.74 points to 7,663.43, its worst day since July. But about two of every three S&P 500 stocks rose, according to market data, as investors moved into staples, health care, utilities and homebuilders.

Homebuilders, big users of copper in wiring and plumbing, rallied as the 10-year Treasury yield fell back below a closely watched threshold for the first time since September 22. That was a reminder that falling rates could eventually support construction demand.

Oil moved in the opposite direction from metals, with Brent rising to $113.17, its highest since May 4, on Middle East tensions.

Factory Data and Caterpillar Next for Copper

Friday's S&P Global purchasing managers' indexes will offer a fresh read on manufacturing activity, a key driver of copper demand. Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), a bellwether for construction and mining equipment, reports on October 29, the same day as third-quarter US GDP. The Federal Reserve announces its decision on October 28. Investors will also watch whether AI-power stocks stabilize, since that theme has been central to the long-term copper story.