Copper Has An Incredible July (JJC, FCX)

Copper finished trading today, up 0.8% after ripping higher throughout the month, closing July with a 12% gain. The September contract added 2 cents to close at $3.31/pound.

I have said previously that copper is an enormous tell for the world economy and the fact that it skyrocketed this month should only lead to better economic numbers in the future. Yesterday I tweeted that based on the strong move up in copper, I would expect to see strong economic numbers for July and today I was spot on with the Chicago PMI coming in at 62.3, well above market expectations of 56.5. I would expect to continue to see strong numbers as a result of this.

The way to play the move in copper is by buying the miners, specifically Freeport Copper (NYSE: FCX) or the copper ETF's, Ipath Dow Jones Ubs Copper ETF (NYSE: JJC) or the First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund ETF (NYSE: CU).

As long as we continue to see gains in copper, I would expect to see a stronger economic recovery in the second half of the year than most people think.