China Doing to Copper What it Usually Does to Dissidents - BHP Group (NYSE:BHP), Global X Copper Miners ETF (ARCA:COPX)

China is absolutely murdering copper prices again today, as it ramps down purchases of the useful metal. Copper is down almost two percent this week, with half of the losses coming today. Copper has gone down for three months now, with China's disinterest in the metal leading the charge. China was using the metal as a convenient hedge against the dollar, in large part because it felt that copper had more wiggle room to rise than gold did, and because copper has industrial usefulness. Now that China is raising interest rates and trying to curb its own inflation problem, demand for copper has lessened a bit in China. How you play this news depends on your confidence that copper will keep going down in the coming week.

Action ItemsBullish:

Traders who believe that copper will bounce back might want to consider the following trades:

BHP Billiton BHP The mining giant makes sense for just about any industrial metal, including copper. BHP is so diversified that investing in it is almost like buying into an industrial commodity ETF.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold FCX Another copper mining company that gives you a broader exposure to metals in general, FCX also gets into the gold market.
Global X Copper Miners COPX offers you an ETF with exposure across the copper mining industry, allowing for a different sort of diversification (one metal, many companies, rather than the other plays, which are one company, several metals).

Bearish:

Traders who believe that copper is still headed downward may consider taking positions in the following:

PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish UUP This ETF gives you exposure to a rising dollar. The dollar tends to go up when commodities (like copper) drop.
SPY This play gives you the broader market in one investment, allowing you to speculate on the rise of the market. Lower commodity prices tend to be good for the market as a whole, as it becomes cheaper to manufacture things.

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