Some copper info/What CFO's are thinking/Used car prices/You like sushi?

As copper is now the subject of substantial tariffs, it's important to understand that this is probably the most important industrial metal in the world in terms of its breadth of use. According to the US Geological Survey, "Electrical uses of copper, including power transmission and generation, building wiring, telecommunication, and electrical and electronic products, account for about three quarters of total copper use. Building construction is the single largest market, followed by electronics and electronic products, transportation, industrial machinery, and consumer and general products." https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/copper-statistics-and-information

The US produces about half of the refined copper it needs every year with about 2/3rds made in Arizona. Most of the balance of copper that we import comes from Chile (just over 600k metric tons) with much smaller amounts from Canada (about 175k) and Peru (less than 100k). These countries make up around 90% of refined copper imports to the US.

My worry, again, is while it is laudable to want the US to build more manufacturing plants in the US, the cost of physically building these factories and filling them with machinery and electrical equipment is getting more and more expensive because of the tariffs on all the crucial things that is needed for construction and build out.

The copper rally yesterday sent the CRB raw industrials index up by almost 1% to just 2 pts from the highest level since February 2023. I'm no technician but that's a good looking chart below in terms of a bottoming process. We remain bullish and long commodity stocks.