Copper is a base or nonferrous metal. The London Metals Exchange offers forwards on copper, while the COMEX division of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trades futures on the red metal. Copper is an industrial commodity that is a building block for infrastructure around the world. China is the world's most populous nation with 1.4 billion people. Economic growth in China has turned the country from an emerging market to the nation with second-leading GDP on our planet.
The price of copper tends to move higher when the global economy is growing and lower as it