METALS: Copper Surge

After a gloomy winter, copper investors thought they saw a few signs of spring. On the New York Stock Exchange last week copper stocks rose in heavy trading. At week's end Kennecott was up 2⅜ to 88⅞, Anaconda up 2½ to 46⅞, Magma 5¼ to 47. Behind the push was a ½¢ rise to 23½¢ a Ib. in copper price at custom smelters, which normally supply about 15% of U.S. refined copper. On the London Metal Exchange, where world prices are set and fluctuate with daily sales, copper closed at 21.75¢ a Ib., up .81¢.

Sales picked up after Anaconda's Roy H. Glover announced that his company was taking no new orders at current prices in Europe, where demand for copper is still strong. Almost all of Anaconda's scheduled 1958 production, plus the carryover of copper from last year, has been sold. Kennecott has also stopped selling domestic copper to Europe because, said President Charles R. Cox, "the copper is worth more in the ground."

Was this the anticipated turn in copper prices? Copper analysts think not—at least not yet. The last ½¢ hike at custom smelters, in December, lasted only three weeks when the price dropped back, subsequently fell 2¢ more. Demand is still sluggish at the 25¢-a-lb. level asked by major domestic producers, and Western Congressmen are still talking about a sick industry and pressing for a 4¢-a-lb. tariff, placing the "peril point" where the tariff would go into effect at 30¢ (TIME, Feb. 10). While producers feel that the users' inventory liquidation is about over, higher copper prices can come only with a pickup in demand by major copper consumers.