Out Fox The $treet

Though a lot of focus exists over the copper inventories in China, the LME inventories continue heading south toward the lows in 2007/8. Ultimately this has to be very bullish for copper and construction stocks. Especially considering North America is just now heading into the heavy construction period. The market has been so focused on the Chinese story regarding copper that it has completely ignored that the US is a dominant player in the demand story. At some point we're still expecting a strong US rebound by 2013 and China to continue with strong growth. The market is not prepared for both of the 2 largest users to be strong at the same time. Below is the 5 year chart from kitco.com. As the chart shows, inventory levels haven't been this low since the last bull construction market in the US. Now though, levels are heading that way before construction has even become strong. Naturally copper stocks such as Freeport McMoRan (FCX) will benefit the most, but constru...

Copper spikes to $3.55/lb today and is closing in on the $3.6 high from earlier in 2010 and will likely eventually push toward the 2009 high around $4/lb. Copper prices now has the benefit of lower grade production from the top miners [ Copper Miners Underproduce Expectations By 6% a Year] , high demand from a country like China that has little supply, and a recovering housing market in the US along with a FED that is pushing the dollar lower. All in all the prices for Copper remain very favorable. Even in the face of rising prices this year, inventories continue to plunge at a fast pace. Mainly because top miners such as BHP and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) continue to struggle to keep up with production expectations due to lower grade of ores. FCX in its recent Q2 conference call forecasted Copper prices just above the $3 range providing huge upside to any guidance they've provided. Our Opportunistic and Growth portfolios have been heavily invested in the Copper trade via the fore ...