LME Risks More Squeezes as Metal Stocks Hit Lowest in Decades

London’s metal traders are still reeling from the historic squeeze in nickel a month ago, but they may not get much time to recover -- inventories across the exchange’s warehouses have dropped to perilously low levels, raising the threat of further spikes in everything from aluminum to zinc.

The available stockpiles across the six main contracts on the London Metal Exchange have plunged to the lowest on record in data going back to 1997. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warned that copper is “sleepwalking towards a stockout,” while freely available zinc inventories shrank by more than 60% in less than three ...