Copper

Copper is called Doctor Copper on the theory that the metal holds a PhD in economics and diagnoses the global cycle. That nickname has become the most misleading idea in the market. Through 2026 copper set records while manufacturing surveys across the developed world were unremarkable, because the marginal buyer changed. Grid connections and data-centre power infrastructure do not consume copper when growth is strong; they consume it because the projects are already committed. A demand base insensitive to the cycle cannot be a thermometer for the cycle.