Copper hit an intraday record of US$6.71 a pound on COMEX on May 13. Supply has tightened after disruptions at Indonesia’s Grasberg mine, flooding at Congo’s Kamoa-Kakula complex, and a 10% year-on-year drop in Chilean output in March. At the same time, demand is being boosted by AI data centers, EVs and industrial robots, with S&P Global projecting copper demand will reach 42 million tonnes by 2040. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have raised their copper price targets to $13,735–$15,000 per metric ton.

SK Hynix said it plans to raise up to US$29.4 billion through a Nasdaq listing of American Depositary Receipts. The company is seeking to tap strong U.S. investor demand for AI-linked stocks as a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems by customers such as Nvidia and Google. Proceeds are slated for expanding chip production in South Korea and buying manufacturing tools including ASML’s extreme ultraviolet scanners.

U.S. stock index futures diverged in early trading, with Nasdaq 100 E-minis up 0.48% as investors returned to technology shares after a sharp selloff. Chip names were in focus, with Micron Technology rising premarket as markets looked ahead to its earnings and weighed concerns about whether gains can extend after prior post-results declines. AI-chip sentiment was hit after Cerebras Systems cut its full-year profit-margin outlook in its first report since going public. A firmer dollar and rising rate expectations ahead of the PCE inflation reading weighed on commodities, pushing gold toward a two-week low while oil extended losses by more than 1%.

U.S.-Iran talks were called off and Israel intensified attacks in Lebanon, dimming the outlook for a Middle East truce. Brent is on track for a weekly decline of more than 8%, even as it held at US$79.78 a barrel on Friday. Expectations have cooled for a quick recovery in Strait of Hormuz shipping and for more than 85 million barrels of stranded crude to return to global markets. Goldman Sachs and Citi cut their mid-term oil price forecasts, with Citi’s base case projecting US$60–65 per barrel by the first quarter of 2027.

The war in the Middle East has disrupted aluminum output, pushing prices to a four-year high and leaving them nearly 10% above pre-conflict levels. Gulf producers account for about 9% of global supply, and analysts say restarting damaged or idled smelters could take months to more than a year, keeping the market tight through year-end. For Canada, where 96% of aluminum is produced with hydroelectric power, higher prices have helped cushion the impact of 50% U.S. tariffs and contributed to a rebound in shipments to the United States.

The S&P 500’s Shiller price-earnings ratio has risen to 41.3, close to the 44.2 peak reached in December 1999 and far above the roughly 19 average over the past century. Because it uses 10 years of inflation-adjusted earnings, the measure smooths out short-term profit bursts tied to surging AI-related capital spending. By contrast, the index’s forward P/E is about 21 times expected earnings, only modestly above its 30-year average of 17.1. A key caveat is that much of the profit growth is concentrated in a small number of mega-cap technology companies, complicating what the valuation signal means for the broader market.

Koryx Copper (KRY-X) CEO increased his stake by buying 100,000 shares in the open market on June 3 at C$3.29 per share, lifting his holdings to 2.914 million shares. The company is advancing its 100%-owned Haib Copper Project in Namibia and on May 15 reported results from 17 drill holes, including 150 metres of 0.45% copper equivalent in hole HM132. Koryx is targeting publication of a prefeasibility study in Q4 2026.

Norway’s Equinor said it will postpone a decision until early 2027 on whether to move ahead with the Bay du Nord deepwater oil project off Newfoundland. The company’s latest assessment puts recoverable reserves at 5.5亿 barrels, up 28% from the previous 4.3亿 barrels and close to double the initial estimate. Equinor has decided to develop two of five discoveries in the area. If it goes ahead, Bay du Nord would be Canada’s first deepwater oil development and would sit about 500 kilometres from shore, making it the world’s most remote offshore oil project from land.

Investors have been aggressively building bullish copper positions, with net longs in CME copper futures reaching 77,131 contracts in early June, the highest since early 2021. Net length has eased but remains elevated at 71,127 contracts, while short positioning has stayed at historically low levels. On the LME, options positioning is strongly tilted to calls, with nearly 112,000 December call contracts outstanding versus about 52,000 puts, and bets clustered around $15,500–$17,000 per ton and as high as $25,000 per ton. The prospect of U.S. import tariffs alongside the energy transition and AI themes has pushed investors to anchor copper pricing to long-term structural expectations rather than near-term supply and demand.