OCT 25 SATURDAY

Copper Heads for Biggest Weekly Drop Since 1986;

Copper was poised for its biggest weekly decline since 1986 .

Copper, used in wires and pipes, sank 22 percent this week and

aluminum is down 11 percent. Toyota Motor Corp., the world's

second-largest automaker, reported its first drop in quarterly

sales in seven years. Volvo AB, the second-biggest heavy-truck

maker, said it expects a 10 percent decline in the North

American market this year.

Copper dropped every day this week, pulling prices down the

most since at least April 1986. The metal lost 7.2 percent

today to $3,750 a metric ton by 4:10 p.m. on the LME.

Copper may drop to $3,500 by next week, Michael Khosrowpour,

an analyst at Triland Metals Ltd., said in London.

Aluminum may fall to $1,900 a ton over the same

period, he said.

Stockpiles of copper in warehouses monitored by the LME

gained 2,725 tons, or 1.3 percent, to 211,975 tons, the

biggest jump since Oct. 7.

All of the gains were in the Netherlands, Spain and the U.S.,

while inventories dropped in South Korea, a location used to

store metal for buyers in China, the world's largest user of

copper. Inventories in warehouses monitored by the

Shanghai Futures Exchange declined 11 percent in the

week ended yesterday.