Recovered from yesterday's selloff during overnight trading, the copper market has returned towards the high end of this week's trading range and close to a new 4-month high. There are some who feel that this recent strength in copper prices suggests that the market may be capable of discounting, or by some accounts ignoring, the ongoing threat of slowing in the US economy.

However, others futures analysts believe that seeing favorable Chinese PMI data and favorable Australian data overnight has apparently allowed the copper market to put a positive spin on the global demand outlook. On the other hand, the copper bulls will have to get past a series of key US economic readings that will be released over the next three trading sessions, especially with September copper's overnight highs being the highest price level for a nearby copper contract since April 27th! News of a decline in Japanese cathode inventories along with today's price action with Indian copper has convinced some in the trade that developing country demand may be capable of more than offsetting slumping developed world demand. LME Copper Stocks were 398,775 tons, up 250 tons.