Metal prices suggest upturn

Rise in copper cost used as leading economic indicator, reacting fast to industry demand

Economic forecasting often brings together a collection of statistical measures. This includes the purchasing managers index, non-farm payrolls in the United States and other reports. They are compiled from taxation of regulatory reports to government departments. They take time to compile and there is often disagreement about the importance of some of the reports.

The price behavior in markets is very sensitive to changes in these economic conditions. The market moves before the statistics are compiled and the formal economic reports are analyzed. Often these reports are used to validate the activity already shown in market indexes, or in commodity price behavior.