Copper is the industrial metal with the broadest exposure to construction, grid infrastructure and electrification, which earns it the nickname Dr Copper for its supposed ability to diagnose the global economy. In practice it tracks Chinese construction and, increasingly, electrification capital spending.
The contract competes with the LME's 25-tonne contract, which trades in dollars per tonne. Converting between them is a frequent source of error: one tonne is 2,204.6 pounds.
Example: copper at $4.25 a pound is $106,250 per contract, or $4.25 x 2,204.6 = $9,370 a tonne on the LME. A 10-cent move is $2,500 per COMEX contract.
Related: comex, managed-money, nickel-squeeze-2022, intercommodity-spread, gc