"Dr. Copper" has a new diagnosis, and it's not great

The war in the Middle East has caused a number of commodity prices to spike. Oil costs, fertilizer costs, and even helium costs are rising.

One commodity is bucking that trend. The price of copper has been sliding since the start of the war, hitting a low for the year over the weekend.

Atomic number 29 has a nickname in financial circles.

“Copper is traditionally known as Dr. Copper,” said Natalie Scott-Gray, senior metals analyst at StoneX. That’s because the metal is used in so many economic activities, from transport to construction to electricity.

“It's a good barometer, basically, for macroeconomic health,” Scott-Gray said.

High copper prices tend to reflect optimism about future economic growth. And heading into this year, Dr. Copper’s prognosis was pretty good, said Morgan Bazilian, a professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines.

“The copper market has done terrifically, right? It's gone up and up and up and it reached almost record highs as recently as late January of 2026,” Bazilian said.

But prices have fallen in the past few weeks, thanks in large part to the war in Iran, said Chris Berry, president of House Mountain Partners.

“Investors are worried about demand destruction due to an energy shock. The longer the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, the greater the likelihood of a recession and slower economic activity,” Berry said.

Plus, he said new concerns over inflation mean the Federal Reserve and other central banks are less likely to cut interest rates this year.

“And of course, higher interest rates lead to slower growth, which is another reason why I think you see a lid on the price of copper currently,” Berry said.

Even though the market has been down, it’s unlikely to collapse anytime soon, said Albert Mackenzie, a copper analyst with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

In the long term, “if you look at most companies’ forecasts, including our own, you see that demand growth is growing significantly,” Mackenzie said.

That’s because global population is increasing, and becoming wealthier, “and the world is more electrified than it's ever been,” Mackenzie said.

And with the war roiling the oil market, that trend is likely to continue.