Barclays Sees Copper, Iron Ore Cooling Off In 2017

Metals have sharply rallied not just in the glow of Trump’s victory, but starting since the middle of October. Expectations of a stimulus under the Republican president-elect and expectations of higher growth have fueled their rise. Copper, for example, has risen to $5,600 per ton, after languishing below $5,000 for much of 2016; and iron ore has risen to $72 per ton. Where do both go from here?

Barclays thinks the only way is down.

“We think that the recent rally in metals is built partially on improved fundamentals and partially on speculation and hype,” the British bank asserted in a research note Dec. 5. The fundamentals have...