The Copper Market.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 5118, 8 June 1907, Page 1

The Copper Market.

The price of copper is again on the decline, and the present quotation of £97 15s for distant delivery is on a par with the prices ruling Borne weeks back when the American market slumped. The United States is at once by far the largest producer and consumer of this metal, and the present slump is most probably due to lessened demand in America. All authorities agree that the consumption of copper has overtaken supply, and the rise was therefore reasonable; at the same time there is no doubt that there has been a great deal of speculation for the rise, and probably the same thing is going on now for the full. It is the usual market struggle between the "bulls” and the “beurs,” and for the moment the boars are in the ascendant. It should occasion no suprise to see copper go considerably lower than it is to-day, for copper it controlled by trusts in America, and so also are the indus tries in which copper plays an important part. The aggressive attitude displayed by President Roosevelt in the interests of the people against the large combines will have the effect of checking the “ schemes " that these great organisations engineer for exploiting the public. Furthermore, the action of President Roosevelt must cause a scare amongst the capitalists who usually raid the public, and speculation must have slackened considerably. Cheap copper is entirely in the public interest, for it will admit of a freer' use of the metal for electrical purposes.