Amid Copper Sell-Off, Barclays Likes Southern Copper And Freeport-McMoRan

Barclays took a neutral position on the copper sub-sector in a report on U.S. Metals & Mining issued Thursday.

Analyst Matthew J. Korn expected “the bullish impact of lower-than-expected metal supply to outweigh a slowdown in Chinese consumption growth and push copper prices higher.”

Both Southern Copper Corp SCCO and Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX “boast high-probability mining expansion projects over the next two years, but we consider pure-play [Southern Copper's] overall risk profile more favorable,” according to the report.

Korn added that Freeport-McMoRan’s “copper business is world-class, but we expect the stock to remain pressured by uncertainty around its Indonesian operations and, more acutely, by its strategy to invest heavily into the E&P business just as oil prices now look likely to stay lower for longer.”

The firm maintained an Overweight rating on Southern Copper Corp which recently traded at $26.05, up 1.44 percent.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc was rated Equal-weight and recently traded at $18.69, down 1.96 percent.