Copper’s record-breaking run above $14,500/ton should get everyone’s attention. It is the latest sign that the physical economy is repricing scarcity in the real world.
Yes, part of yesterday’s move reflects tariff front-running and metal being pulled into US warehouses. But that doesn’t paint the whole picture.
Metal stranded in one part of the world is unavailable to everyone outside it. Scarcity is not just about how many tonnes exist, it is about having the tonnes in the right place at the right time.
You cannot build data centres, expand grids, electrify industry or duplicate supply chains without copper. Yet supply cannot respond quickly enough because of the same constraints I have highlighted in the thread below.
This is the latest rotation of the commodity cycle. Last month it was grain. Last week it was diesel. Today it is copper.
Weather, war and policymaking are the three horsemen that have combined against underinvestment (the revenge of the old economy) to create a scarcity problem that shows no signs of being solved. The bears will say the metal exists. Fine. But if it is locked in a warehouse, it is just a pile of metal.
Just two weeks ago I said the next phase of this cycle would bring “higher highs across more markets”. Copper is now doing exactly that.
Wake up, folks. Commodities are telling you something, and yesterday the Treasury confirmed it.
Scarcity in the physical world. Repression in the financial one.
Scarcity pushes prices up. Repression holds yields down. The gap between them is the debasement.
Commodities are the only asset class that wins on both sides.
The structural case for commodities has been turbo charged. Underinvestment, deglobalization and electrification all pushing markets like diesel cracks and copper to new highs.
Meanwhile the chokepoints are increasing, from Hormuz to the Red Sea, the Rhine, the Panama Canal, the Black Sea grain corridor and Russian refining capacity. It is becoming increasingly apparent that not a single one of those is reachable by anything in Washington's toolkit whether it be caused by war or weather.
The illusion of abundance is likely behind us. I said as much on CNBC this Monday, and I got long gold, silver and agriculture last week.
Ten points for you to consider. (1/11)