Copper has been rallying like crazy in the first part of the year amid a
pickup in global growth, Chinese stimulus measures and concerns over tightness
in global mine supply. Unfortunately, as it’s often the case, the rally
attracted the momentum players, the price got overstretched and we got a big
correction to the downside.

FT reported that stocks in Shanghai warehouses reached the highest level
since 2020 amid tepid demand because of the China’s real estate sector
downturn. Given the high prices reached in the last month, manufacturers held
off from buying as they had an incentive to run down their stockpiles.

FT also added that Chinese copper fabricators have very
recently started buying the metal again, with inventories recording slight
decreases in the past two weeks. All else being equal, if we keep seeing positive growth and maintain the risk-on
sentiment, we could see new highs in the months ahead with the Chinese
officials increasing the policy support if the data was to show some
deceleration.

Copper
Technical Analysis – Daily Timeframe

On the daily chart, we can
see that copper has been experiencing an aggressive correction to the downside
after setting a new all-time high. The price bounced recently on a key level at
4.35 where we can also find the 50% Fibonacci retracement level for confluence.

This is where we can expect
the buyers to step in with a defined risk below the level to position for a
rally into a new all-time high. The sellers, on the other hand, will want to
see the price breaking lower to increase the bearish bets into the 4.00 level.

Copper Technical
Analysis – 4 hour Timeframe

On the 4 hour chart, we can
see that we have a trendline defining the current bearish trend.
The buyers will want to see the price breaking higher to gain some more
conviction and extend the rally into the 4.67 level where we have also the
38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of the entire correction. If the price gets
there, we can expect the sellers to lean on that level to position for a break
below the 4.35 support with a better risk to reward setup.

Copper Technical
Analysis – 1 hour Timeframe

On the 1 hour chart, we can
see that the price is rejecting the trendline as the sellers are stepping in
with a defined risk above it to position for a drop back into the support
targeting a break below it. The red lines define the average daily range for today.

Upcoming
Catalysts

Tomorrow we get the US Housing Starts, Building Permits and the latest US
Jobless Claims figures. On Friday, we conclude the week with the US PMIs.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.