Copper Futures Hit $6.95 Record
Copper futures set a fresh all-time high of $6.95 per pound on September 22, capping a year in which the industrial metal and gold have moved in strikingly opposite directions. The record has reopened a debate that reaches well beyond commodities desks: can copper begin closing the gap with gold as a store of value? Unlike a monetary asset, copper is priced by industrial consumption — wiring, power grids and electronics — which makes a record high during a flat year for bullion genuinely unusual. The six-month copper chart puts the metal up roughly 20% in 2026, heading toward one of its strongest annual performances on record, while the trailing twelve-month gain widens to more than 46%. Two forces carry the move: a concentrated copper bet by investor Michael Burry and a supply picture that keeps tightening, with tariff uncertainty pushing buyers to position ahead of Washington’s pending import decisions. Gold has barely responded, adding just 0.02% over the same stretch — and that flat line conceals a wilder ride beneath it. Bullion climbed past $5,600 per ounce in late January 2026 on safe-haven flows, crashed within days, and has spent the months since clawing its way back toward flat. Copper absorbed a shock of its own in September, when a stalled US tariff plan briefly stripped almost 8% from the price, but the metal erased that pullback and pressed on to fresh records. For investors whose scarce-asset exposure runs through vehicles such as the S&P 500 ETF, the 2026 divergence suggests the market is repricing what counts as scarce across asset classes.
Shanghai Stocks Lowest Since 2023
Copper’s strength has roots very different from gold’s, and the physical numbers behind the squeeze are striking. Shanghai warehouse stocks of copper cathode — the refined form traded against exchange contracts — dropped to 43,900 tonnes, its lowest reading since 2023. London Metal Exchange stocks available to the market slipped to 133,725 tonnes, a drawdown severe enough to reshape pricing across the commodity complex, from crude oil (WTI) through industrial metals. Exchange-warehouse levels matter because they measure metal actually available for delivery rather than paper claims; when registered stock thins, nearby contract prices decouple from longer-dated ones. On the demand side, artificial intelligence is the new engine. Michael Burry spelled out the asymmetry last week: bringing a new copper deposit into production takes roughly 18 years, while data centers built for AI add fresh demand on a two-to-three-year horizon. That timing gap, he argued, was central to his choice of a copper miner over AI-linked equities — from chipmakers to enterprise-hardware names such as HP Enterprise — a concentrated single-stock position in the classic whale mold. Producers cannot respond quickly, because mine development cycles stretch across decades — precisely the constraint Burry flagged. The next catalyst now sits in Washington. The Commerce Department’s long-delayed tariff ruling on refined copper imports remains pending, and traders expect the decision to move prices sharply once it lands. Gold, by contrast, still wins on sheer size: the metal’s outstanding stock is worth roughly $30 trillion, and central banks continue to hold it as a reserve asset — a monetary role copper, whatever its 2026 momentum, does not share. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Bybit.
