quite a joke, page-14

Hi Marker

Its not the price of copper see below

US copper futures up modestly despite hefty stock increase

Washington (Platts)--17Jul2008
COMEX copper futures moved upward Thursday morning, despite a hefty stocks increase, as oil futures reversed their downward trend and US dollar lost some of its spark against the euro after an overnight rally to $1.58.
Copper for September delivery, the active contract, was up 5.95 cents/lb at 371 cents/lb at 10 am EDT, while the August contract rose 1.05 cents to 368.25 cents. Copper stocks in COMEX warehouses continued to draw down,
falling 160 st at the end of Wednesday to 7,969 st.

Three-months copper on the London Metal Exchange remained unchanged at $8,080/mt by the end of the second ring. Copper stocks in LME warehouses rose by a net 2,200 mt overnight to 127,900 mt on hefty deliveries to European
warehouses. But canceled warrants rose for their third consecutive day to 8,650.

The stocks are being attracted by the extremely wide cash-to-three month backwardation, which ballooned to $235/mt on Wednesday but narrowed to about $220/mt Thursday, one European analyst said.

"There is a very keen incentive to deliver metal. But the reason that the market hasn't reacted too much to it is because not that much metal has come in," he said. "One would have expected a lot more metal to have come in by now
given that cash backwardation."

In addition, Thursday, as in previous days this week, saw a high premium to "borrow" metal for day, in which a trader buys nearby to cover and sells at a later prompt date. "That restricts anyone from aggressively shorting the
market," he said.
--Nick Jonson, [email protected]