What is going on in the copper market??

[DcifrThs]

somebody here has to be a trader on the floor or the front lines...if so, i'd really love to know what the beat is on the copper market.

from the FT:

[ QUOTE ]
Copper rose 1.3 per cent to $8,020 a tonne, with fundamental support from threatened strike action in Latin America and signs the London market is again being squeezed higher by a single dominant hedge fund.

[/ QUOTE ]

further, from bloomberg:

[ QUOTE ]
The foreign-exchange market ``is where the move in copper is coming from,'' said Eric Wittenauer, an industrial-metals analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. ``The weaker dollar for commodities priced in dollars is bullish across the board.''

[/ QUOTE ]

that last part combined with tight global conditions factor into a price boost (in addition to the FT quote mentioned above)

but the likely additional US slowdown in housing, and the possible slowdown in other int'l housing markets could hurt copper demand (and should at some points on the copper curve.


anyways, i don't have this data and would like to get a first hand account of a commodities trader to spin all this together...especially the part about how the london copper market is being squeezed by 1 hedge fund... (and how big is the london market vs. chicago or ny for copper?)


thanks,
Barron