Copper's bull case reasserted itself this week, with research voices coalescing around a structural supply-demand squeeze.
Early in the window, some analysts flagged near-term headwinds — rising US Treasury yields, a firmer dollar, softer Chinese industrial data, and US-Iran tensions — warning that copper looked vulnerable to a sharper retracement alongside other risk assets.
By midweek, the published consensus shifted decisively bullish. Multiple research threads framed copper as entering a multi-year, possibly multi-decade, supply deficit, driven by AI data center build-outs, grid upgrades, electrification, onshoring capex, and strategic stockpiling. One recurring point: Codelco reportedly overstated production while actual output sits at multi-decade lows, underscoring how thin the supply cushion has become.
Shorter-term technical work also turned constructive, citing a gap-up break of a downtrend line near 12,340 on LME copper and a pattern of higher highs and higher lows consistent with expansion-phase price action.