Chart of the day: Copper confidence crumples

Spot copper prices leave no doubt about the intensity of the commodity-driven downdraft they are caught in - heading towards their lowest in 4½ years and the psychologically important level of US$6,000 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange. Confidence in the world's most important industrial metal has arguably crumpled further in the week since broker Marex Spectron gathered the data together and crunched the numbers for its proprietary index of trading sentiment in London, New York and Shanghai. As at December 31, the index had dropped to its lowest since April and recorded its second-most negative reading in the past two years. Sentiment is now at levels consistent with market lows and turning points, but a change of momentum will be needed to bring that shift in direction. Guy Wolf, the head of market analytics at Marex Spectron, is not immediately hopeful of that change: "The collapse in sentiment for copper traders at the end of last year makes it likely that we will see the 2015 lows for copper in the first quarter of the year."