Professional speculators have recently been reducing long exposure to gold, silver and platinum, but have consistently boosted long wagers on copper over the past several weeks.
Other industrial metals started rising before copper. Supporting the recent gains in base metal prices, markets saw improving data from China, the world’s largest consumer of industrial metals. However, some are beginning to doubt the sustainability of the metal market, pointing to signs of potential weakness in Chinese growth ahead.
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“After vastly underperforming other metals and steelmaking raw materials in 2016, copper is looking much healthier than pre-Trump with a 34% rise from six-year lows hit in January this year,” adds Mining.com. “Better prospects for the bellwether metal is nowhere more evident than on derivatives markets and the shift in positioning of large-scale derivatives speculators such as hedge funds.”
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