by Craig Hemke, Sprott Money:
We’ve had an eye trained on copper prices since late 2022. Why? Because any sustained move higher in copper is very likely to bleed over to silver, and with the COMEX silver price so close to a multi-year breakout, a copper catalyst could be all it takes to get things rolling.
Again, though, we’ve been watching copper for quite some time. There were moments in 2023 when it appeared that copper was set to rally…but it never did. And now here we are in 2024, looking for the same type of surge.
The copper price has moved higher lately, and as I type, it’s back above $4/pound on the front month, May24 COMEX contract. See below:
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
From a technical standpoint, the chart looks pretty good too. Notice that the 50-day moving average is above the 200-day and that both are trending higher.
On the longer-term chart, you can see that a key level of resistance awaits if price can continue higher. Note that the area around $4.20 offered support a few years ago but has recently become resistance. As such, any move back above this level would be a very positive development.
And the fundamental supply/demand picture seems to be improving, too, with several major financial publications taking notice. Here are just a few recent links:
• https://www.ft.com/content/c3c66359-6bdb-45cb-8ddd-663f10c1d3d9
• https://www.barrons.com/articles/ai-copper-stocks-nvidia-angloamerican-southern-copper-68d33f13
Robert Friedland, legendary copper investor and founder of Ivanhoe Mines, is a great follow on X if you want to stay up to date on copper. Here’s a sample of some of his latest posts:
Putting it all together, copper looks pretty attractive as both a trade and an investment in 2024 and beyond. However, that’s not the theme of this week’s post. Instead, check out the two charts below. Let’s start with the past six months of COMEX copper and silver paired together with copper prices shown in candlesticks and silver as a blue line. As you can see, that’s a pretty tight correlation:
