"Dr. Copper has delivered a verdict and it is not good," says Neil Hume in the Financial Times. The red metal is used in a wide array of industries, notably electronics and construction, so it is widely deemed a barometer of global activity. The price has slipped by a fifth this year and is now at a near-two-year low of around $5,600 a tonne.
A gauge of US manufacturing has hit a decade-low, while its eurozone equivalent has fallen to a seven-year trough. Weakening demand has negated the impact of a 2% drop in mined supply this year. Longer term, however, the outlook for copper is auspicious: an electric car uses three times as much copper as a conventional one, while miners have struggled to find big, high-quality deposits.
Viewpoint
Michael Lewitt, The Credit Strategist
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
-
‘I installed a heat pump in my home – here are five things I’ve learnt’From the size and noise of a heat pump to how much it costs to run one, Ruth Emery reveals what she’s learnt after installing one in her home six months ago
-
3 ways to work out if a stock is good valueThe only thing you can really control in investing is the price you pay for an asset – but how can you tell if you’re getting a good deal when it comes to the price of a stock?
-
What would the greatest mathematician of the Middle Ages say about gold today?Sponsored Italian mathematician Fibonacci is most famous for a curious sequence of numbers. Continuing his series on technical analysis, Dominic Frisby explains what these numbers are, and what they can tell us about gold’s next move.
-
How moving averages can reveal trades worth betting on – and ones to avoidSponsored Dominic Frisby looks in more depth at how moving averages can help you catch turning points in markets and help you decide which trades are worth pursuing.
-
This chart pattern could be extraordinarily bullish for goldCharts The mother of all patterns is developing in the gold charts, says Dominic Frisby. And if everything plays out well, gold could hit a price that investors could retire on.
-
Believe it or not, this market is a “buy”Charts With the world in the state it’s in and the market so volatile, buying stocks right now might go against all your instincts. But that’s just what you should be doing, says Dominic Frisby. Here, he explains why.
-
Chart of the week: avocados and bitcoin are in syncCharts An amusing new spurious correlation has been spotted between the price of bitcoin and Mexican Hass avocados. In reality, of course, they have nothing to do with each other beyond “superficial price action”.
-
Chart of the week: Kuwait's stockmarket is ready for take-offCharts Kuwait's stockmarket is due to be promoted from “frontier” status to an emerging market by index provider MSCI next June. That should entice almost $10bn of global investors’ cash into the country.
-
Chart of the week: US stocks outrun profitsCharts The US stockmarket has become totally detached from underlying profits of its constituent companies over the past three years.
-
Chart of the week: America’s corporate debt bingeCharts US households have spent much of the past decade deleveraging. Companies haven’t as this chart shows.
