WELLINGTON—Base and precious metals slumped in early Asian trade Thursday as investors, nervous over the progress on Europe's debt crisis and the prospect of the global economy tipping back into recession, exited metals and stocks.

Copper, which is considered a proxy for growth expectations, slumped within minutes of the open. London Metal Exchange three-month futures went into a freefall, losing close to 6% to a session low of $6,821 a metric ton, and extending its losses for the month of September to 23%. Later in the morning, LME copper was at $7,010/ton, down $240, leading the base metals complex lower. Spot gold slipped more than 1%, while silver shed more than 2%.

Copper is used in everything from Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computers to indoor plumbing and electrical wires.

The global economic outlook was becoming gloomier after an unexpected 0.1% fall in U.S. August durable-goods orders, a second drop in three months as manufacturers struggled. The reading was below economists' expectations of a 0.2% rise.

A signal by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke overnight that he is prepared to take more unconventional policy steps if the economy worsens much more did little to cool frayed nerves, keeping traders edgy ahead of a vote in the German parliament later in the trading day to decide on changes to the European Union's bailout fund.

Although the vote is expected to pass, apparent discord among European leaders on how to contain the region's debt crisis continued to worry investors.

A Tokyo-based metals trader said buyers in Japan are mostly on the sidelines, watching price movements with the market choppy and the global macroeconomic outlook uncertain.

Large Chinese copper buyers also appeared to be holding back, due to volatility following heavy overnight selling in copper on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division as well as a slide in U.S. shares markets, he said.

"At the moment people are very nervous, and volatility has scared a few people," said IG Markets strategist Ben Potter.

Still, he tipped support for the metal at $1,550/ounce, then $1,575/ounce, saying he would be "surprised if it breaks below that level."

Gold prices breached the key support of $1,600 a troy ounce, falling more than 1% to a session low of $1,583 a troy ounce.

Barclays Capital said it has a near-term technical target for gold at $1,532/ounce and at $26.08/ounce for silver, but is bullish about the medium-term outlook.

"We think markets will revisit the lows posted on Friday, but look for the velocity of the downtrend to be slower," it said.

Gold was at $1,603.60/ounce, down $6.10, while platinum lost $3 to $1,523/ounce. Silver was rebounding from its early lows, adding 24 cents to $30.17/ounce, while palladium gained $3 to $620/ounce.