Alternative Indicators: What’s Dr. Copper’s Prognosis for the U.S. Economy?

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Economists and investors have long turned to copper as a reliable economic indicator: High prices meant the economy was humming, and low prices meant it wasn’t. That’s in part because copper is useful for so many economic activities. In fact, copper was considered such a good signal that investors gave it a nickname—Dr. Copper. But now, as high demand and tariffs affect copper prices, is the commodity’s relationship with the economy becoming blurry? Host Alex Ossola discusses this with Dec Mullarkey, head of investment strategy and asset allocation at SLC Management. This is part two of our four-part series on alternative economic indicators. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Isn't home where we all want to be?
0:01.9	Reba here for Realtor.com, the pro's number one most trusted app.
0:06.2	Finding a home is like dating.
0:08.0	You're searching for the one.
0:10.0	With over 500,000 new listings every month, you can find the one today.
0:15.3	Download the realtor.com app because you're nearly home.
0:18.9	Make it real with Realtor.com.
0:22.0	Pro's number one most trusted app based on August 2025 proprietary survey. Over 500,000 new
0:25.8	listings every month based on average new for sale and rental listings, July 24 to June 2025.
0:30.2	Is the economy hot or not? The picture seems to be murky lately.
0:42.1	If you're a glass-half-full kind of person, you could point to the stock market's strong performance, robust consumer spending, or a relatively low unemployment rate.
0:47.4	But if your glass is half-empty, you might be fretting over other not-so-positive signs.
0:53.1	Inflation is still high. Consumers are feeling pessimistic
0:56.1	about the economy, and jobs are getting harder to find. Delayed economic data because of the
1:02.2	government shutdown has done little to clear things up. So looking at other alternative stats may
1:08.3	help us get a pulse on the economy, even if that data can be messy.
1:12.7	Here's WSJ investing columnist Spencer Jacob.
1:15.9	The thing is, if you go into it with an open mind, you can learn some things.
1:20.2	If you don't have a narrative, if you're going in and saying, hey, what can I find out?
1:23.8	What tea leaves can I read?
1:25.3	And if lots of them are turning in a certain direction,
1:28.1	that's an indication even when you're not seeing it in the official economic data. So this is a
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.