Scott Wright | Jun 02, 2013 02:33AM ET
Anybody halfway attuned to the markets knows that copper has been a 21st-century rock star. No longer just a boring industrial metal, copper is a flamboyant asset that has made fortunes for investors and speculators. It’s soared a staggering 662% from its 2001 low to 2011 high. And still today in the $3.25 region copper is nearly four-fold its 20-year pre-bull-market average.
Copper’s journey has of course played out under an umbrella of structurally strong fundamentals, but by no means has it been a lucid and linear trek. Copper is a commodity after all, and volatility comes with the territory. Over the last dozen years it’s seen wildly exuberant uplegs as well as crushing selloffs.
Driving copper’s interim movements are a confluence of fundamental, technical, and sentimental drivers. And provocatively one of the stickiest in recent years is the flagship S&P 500 stock index (SPX). As irrational as it sounds, there’s no denying the SPX’s influence on copper’s fortunes since early 2009.
At its panic nadir copper was so fundamentally undervalued that its recovery would glom on to the greater stock-market recovery. And for the SPX that recovery commenced following its secondary low in March 2009. By that time the selling was finally exhausted. And when sentiment turned, it was open season on any and all assets that had been pummeled during the panic.
As you can see in this chart, the SPX (red) powered higher in an initial upleg that led to a near double in only about a year. Risk was also on, with the speculators putting big capital to work in the commodities realm. Copper (blue) was of course a huge beneficiary, and it easily outpaced the SPX’s gains over this same stretch.
Following a mid-2010 correction the SPX again powered higher, resuming its recovery turned cyclical bull market. And through the first half of 2011 it achieved numerous post-panic highs. So what did copper do amidst this SPX climb? Yep, you guessed it, it followed in the SPX’s steps. Not only did it deliver its own post-panic highs, copper’s February 2011 apex was an all-time nominal high.
What I really want to bring attention to over this stretch is the correlation between the SPX and copper. And this correlation is apparent not only visually, but mathematically. From the SPX’s March 2009 low to the end of August 2011 the SPX and copper had a super-high correlation of 0.966, yielding an r-square of 93.3%. This means that 93% of the daily behavior of copper’s price could be explained by the daily movement of the SPX. Copper was slave to the SPX for well over two years!
Beginning in September 2011 this correlation started to soften. While the SPX was consolidating following a strong correction, commodities continued to correct in a brutal selloff sparked by economic fears in Europe and a Fed head-fake here in the US. And copper, being an economically-sensitive metal, got crushed to its September low.
When the beat down was finally over copper fell back in tow with the SPX, for the most part. And as you can see in this chart, the SPX’s strong influence over copper persisted essentially through the end of 2012. Though it didn’t achieve new highs like the SPX, nor was the mathematical correlation as tight, the directionality was quite harmonious.
Going into 2013 it wasn’t too much of a concern that copper wasn’t hitting new highs. In a generally weak environment for commodities, copper was still 19% higher than its 2011 low while still being at high levels historically. But as you can see, 2013 hasn’t been kind to this metal. And it is not because the SPX has been dragging it lower. In fact, with the SPX powering higher there’s been a clear disconnect of this multi-year relationship.
This disconnect is obviously quite curious. And it of course begs the question, why did it happen? Naturally there’s been a flurry of speculation tossed around, from copper’s bull market being over to the SPX leaving everything else in the dust as it floats on pure hubris. Ultimately there’s countless ways to rationalize what’s been happening, but I believe there’s one fundamental driver that can shoulder a lot of the blame for copper’s fall, LME stockpiles.
The London Metal Exchange is the world’s premier non-ferrous metals exchange, where over 80% of global non-ferrous business is conducted. And in addition to providing a market for trade and pricing, the LME manages a global network of warehouses that stores the physical metal.
This storage is quite important as not only does it serve to fulfill redeemed contracts, but it offers a place of refuge for excess supply. Now since most of the copper that’s mined is shipped directly to the end user following refinement, the volume that flows through the LME warehouses is quite insignificant as far as the global trade goes. But though this warehoused supply is small, it is vitally important as a buffer between producers and consumers.
LME stockpile levels are also important as they give traders an idea about the economic balance of the copper market. Low and/or declining stockpiles indicate tighter supply, whereas high and/or rising stockpiles indicate excess supply due to overproduction and/or falling demand.
Naturally these factors can have a big influence on price. And thanks to the LME’s ability to track stockpile levels on a real-time basis, we have a unique and accurate fundamental read on copper’s economic balance. And a quick peek at current stockpile levels puts the copper-SPX disconnect in perspective.
The bottom line is following several years of copper moving in tandem with the SPX, 2013 has brought about a decisive disconnect. While the SPX continues to melt up, copper has trended well to the downside. And this disconnect was sparked by the rekindling of an old pre-panic relationship.
Soaring LME stockpiles have taken pressure off what’s been a tight economic balance. And copper’s price could face more headwinds via an imminent SPX correction as well as a forecasted supply surplus over the next couple years. Copper’s and stocks’ misfortunes should however open the door for precious metals to shine as investors seek alternatives.
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