Copper prices are stuck in a ditch. The metal that powers everything from electric vehicles to data centers fell more than 1% in the days following the Federal Reserve’s June 17 meeting, settling near $6.24 per pound, its lowest price since May 2026.
The culprits are familiar: a surging US dollar and a Fed that sounds more interested in hiking rates than cutting them. For a commodity priced in dollars and sensitive to global growth expectations, that combination hits like a one-two punch.
Warsh’s hawkish debut
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh held his first FOMC press conference on June 17, and he didn’t waste time being gentle. The updated dot-plot projections showed the median rate path shifting higher, while the PCE inflation forecast was elevated to 3.6%.
Markets read the tea leaves and started pricing in at least one rate hike before year-end. The dollar responded by climbing to a one-year high, which is great news if you’re an American tourist in Europe but terrible news if you’re trying to sell copper to buyers paying in yen, yuan, or euros.
