Base metals
Industrial metals such as copper, aluminium and nickel, traded on world exchanges in standard contracts.
How to read the number
Their demand comes from construction and manufacturing, so their prices react to a change in the economic cycle earlier than many other assets.
When the metric lies
Exchange warehouse stocks move the price as much as mining does. Metal shifted from an exchange warehouse to a private one changes the visible shortage while changing nothing in substance.
Also known as: industrial metals