The Bloomberg Commodity Index ex-Energy topped 155 levels this week, breaking out above its 2011 high and sitting roughly 13% above its 40-week moving average.
The index tracks industrial metals, precious metals, and the agricultural sector, everything that ends up inside a power cable, a solar panel, a data center cooling loop, or a fertilizer bag.
It is a record set without crude oil. The move is structural. And it is wired directly into the AI race.
“While energy markets have captured most of the attention since the start of the Iran conflict, strength across the broader commodity complex has been equally notable this year,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, in an emailed note.
Copper Is The Tell
Turnquist flagged the breakout in a research note on Tuesday and linked it to a list of drivers that bear little resemblance to the 2011 emerging-market reflation trade.
Tight supply. Chinese silver export restrictions. Solar. AI data centers. Electric vehicles. Lithium carbonate has more than doubled this year due to accelerating demand for batteries and energy storage.
Copper has climbed to record highs on what Turnquist called “rising consumption tied to AI data center buildouts and electrification trends.”
Copper futures on COMEX, as closely tracked by the United States Copper Index Fund ETV (NYSE:CPER), traded above $6.64 a pound on Wednesday, a fresh all-time high.
London Metal Exchange copper hit $14,196.50 per ton, within touching distance of its $14,527.50 record.
The metal is up roughly 16% year-to-date and 43% year-over-year, sitting on its eighth straight day of gains.
The supply shock is real. The Hormuz closure has fractured the seaborne sulfuric acid trade. Turns out, sulfuric acid is what copper miners use in heap leaching to extract metal from ore.
The Middle East supplies nearly half the world’s seaborne sulfuric acid market.
Chilean copper production already ...
