My friend Bob asks
"Mr. Exxtra, What gives with the price of copper?

I'll have Jim Sinclair answer this one:

It doesn’t look as if the Lumber market was particularly impressed with the headline Housing Starts number – it rather appears it is focused on the Permits number instead.

As mentioned before – two of the best indicators for the overall strength or weakness in the economy are the Lumber and the Copper markets.

Both are evidently not sending off bullish signals at the present and appear to be more concerned with the possibility of the credit contagion in Europe worsening and eventually moving over here. When and if BOTH of these markets move higher in tandem and establish clear bull trends, then we can give credence to the improving economy scenario.

Only if “risk trades” come back in force will these two markets be able to improve their current technical picture on the charts and what determines whether or not the risk trades will revive is how the hedge funds view the unfolding of the debt crisis in Europe.