Copper futures ended Thursday recovering losses early in the session to settle down slightly after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled that interest rates may need to be lowered to boost the economy.

Early afternoon Thursday, Bernanke said that the central bank was ready to enhance economic growth by taking aggressive action to counter the housing slump and credit market tensions.

Early in the session Copper reached Thursday a low of $3.2150. Copper futures for March delivery HGH8 went down 0.30 cents to $3.2715 at 7:32 p.m. on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, rebounding from the earlier $3.2150.

On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in March Dropped $32 or 0.44 percent to $7,174 a metric ton. Inventories of copper on the LME dropped 1,100 metric tons, with inventories settling at 199,650.

Copper Ben Bernanke