Up until about a month ago, copper was roughly unchanged on the year, but it has absolutely spiraled lower in short order during the month of September.
Taking a look at iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSEArca: JJC), the product has lost over 21% since late August and trading volume has been off the charts.
The copper exchange traded note had registered six straight down trading days heading into Monday’s action. JJC tracks the Dow Jones-UBS Copper Subindex which measures copper’s performance based on price fluctuations in the futures on the Comex.
Average daily volume in JJC is about 249,000 shares but over the past six sessions, volume has ranged from 300,000 shares to over 1 million shares as the product has traded briskly during the steep decline in copper. [Copper ETFs Fall to 14-Month Low]
This move in copper is not alone, as much has been made recently about steep declines in precious metals including gold and platinum, as well as in industrial metals such as silver.
Additionally, equities that derive a significant part of their revenues from the mining of copper have been punished even more-so than the metal itself recently. For example, First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund (NYSEArca: CU) and Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSEArca: COPX) are down 37.31% and 39.04% year to date respectively, versus JJC’s decline of 26.78%.