Written by Gary Shilling
Bloomberg Headline: Commodities Will Be the Next Market to Succumb
Subheadline: The bulls may soon regret their enthusiasm as both demand and supply forces look as if they will soon start to depress prices.
In aggressive portfolios we manage, we’re short copper futures, which are already down 14% from their early March peak. Copper is used in almost every manufactured good from autos to machinery to appliances to computers, so it’s a great proxy for the global recession I’ve been forecasting. Also, copper has no cartel on either the demand or supply side that can disrupt fundamental economic forces. After suffering some dark years, higher copper prices and robust demand forecasts have, as usual, spurred new mines and refining capacity. The International Copper Study Group expects the refined copper market to have a huge 328,000-metric ton surplus this year after a 475,000-metric ton deficit in 2021.
Weekly and monthly charts for $COPPER