Copper’s Bull Run Faces Reckoning as China Weighs Production Caps

File image of Zambian copper plates loaded on a truck bound for South Africa. David Pyke / Green Eye / Biosphoto / Biosphoto via AFP)

There’s been a dramatic turnaround in the price of copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, with the red metal suffering its largest one-day loss in three weeks on Tuesday.

What’s unusual here is that just last week, prices of the red metal surged to near record-highs in anticipation of a trade deal between the U.S. and China. That optimism didn’t last very long, though, after the release of October’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) on Monday, which showed a slowdown in factory orders.

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by Eric Olander

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