Freeport-McMoRan and Miner Stocks Climb as Copper Tests Fresh Record

Record copper demand is powering metals prices and mining stocks higher. (AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• Copper futures in Shanghai reached a record high of nearly 100,000 yuan, or about $14,270, a ton on Friday.
• Comex copper advanced 5% on Friday, bringing its 2025 gain to approximately 45%, driven by tight supplies and AI demand.
• Freeport-McMoRan shares rose 3.4% to $53.63, amid an 11-day winning streak and its highest level since May 2024.

Copper was back on the march Friday, pushing some of the world’s biggest miners’ stocks to their highest levels in more than a year.

Copper hit a record high of just under 100,000 yuan (about $14,270) a ton in overnight futures trading Friday in Shanghai. It was last marked at $5.857 a pound on the Commodity Exchange, or Comex—a 5% advance on the session that takes copper’s 2025 gain to around 45%.

The metal is on pace for its best annual percentage gain since 2009 across all markets, in fact. Tight global supplies, tariff uncertainty, and ongoing demand tied to the buildout of artificial-intelligence-powered technologies have driven this year’s rally.

Copper futures on Comex have surged nearly 82% since early July, when President Donald Trump floated the idea of a 50% tariff on U.S. copper imports —following a so-called Section 232 investigation into alleged national security concerns tied to the metal. Comex copper printed an all-time intraday high of $5.959 a pound on July 22.

In the equity market, shares of copper miner Freeport-McMoRan were last trading 3.4% higher Friday at $53.63 each, a level that would mark the highest close since May 2024. The stock is also on an 11-day run of consecutive gains, its longest winning streak since September 2024.

Southern Copper, the biggest U.S.-listed copper miner by market value, rose 2.3% to change hands at $151.52 each. BHP Group, which operates the world’s biggest copper mine in Chile, added 1.6%.

David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, however, says while tight supplies will keep prices elevated over the near term, fading China demand into 2026 could trigger a broader pullback.

“Copper supply will tighten next year and push the market balance into a deficit, and there has been a string of mine supply shocks this year that will weigh on refined supply,” he and his team wrote in a recent metals market outlook report.

“That said, given our downbeat view on China’s construction sector, we are comfortable with our view that copper prices will end 2026 lower than their current level,” he added.

Write to Martin Baccardax at martin.baccardax@barrons.com