It’s déjà vu for the copper market.
Almost exactly a year ago, the London Metal Exchange copper contract was the battlefield for a fierce war of wills between bullish hedge funds and investment banks betting on higher prices, and Chinese consumers who ran down inventories as they waited for a better opportunity to buy.
That battle was won by the Chinese – although they had a good deal of help from dithering politicians in the eurozone and the US – as prices eventually tumbled. Fortunes were made for prescient bears such as Michael Farmer and David Lilley of Red Kite, one of the best known metals hedge funds, while Barclays Capital, taking the opposite view, ended the year with a loss in metals and the departure of the head of its LME team.