From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
Industrial metals have been one of the strongest subgroups within the commodity complex over the trailing year.
The parabolic advance in Steel futures off last year’s lows is an excellent illustration of this.
But lately, we see more and more commodities shift toward sideways trends in the intermediate-term. And lots of them are doing so trapped beneath overhead supply.
A quick glance at charts like crude oil or copper tells this story well — the last four months have been a chop fest for most.
Despite an overall trendless market, we’ve seen pockets of strength from a diverse array of contracts. Steel isn’t the only one. In recent months, we’ve covered breakouts in Coffee, Sugar, Livestock — and just last week, Uranium, to name a few.
And, of course, we continue to see plenty of strength from base metals.
But some of the more recent data suggest we should approach these contracts with more caution.
Let’s dive in and examine a few charts presenting mixed signals from this economically sensitive commodity space. [Read more…]