It's been a challenging year for investors, and a stock like copper miner Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) provides a good example. With the market concerned about rising commodity costs, investors favored stocks that benefited from rising commodity prices -- in this case, copper. As such, Freeport's stock was up nearly 25% on the year to late March. Fast forward to the start of July, and recessionary fears have now taken the stock down 30% on the year. Go figure. What's happening, and is the stock a buy or a sell right now?
There are two things to look at. First, there's the price of Freeport's key commodity, copper. Second, consider the stock-specific matters around the miner.
Starting with the copper price, you must go back to the Fall of 2021 to fully understand the big picture. As the economy recovered from the slowdown created by the government's response to COVID-19, the demand for commodities came back strongly in 2021. Consequently, as a commonly used metal, copper soared in price as demand continued to outstrip supply.
Source Fool.com