Copper signals resilience despite eventful weeks

New York

EVEN with the recent turmoil, the global economy is looking pretty resilient - at least that's what metals investors are signalling.

Over the course of about four weeks, the UK voted to leave the European Union, there was a failed coup in Turkey and Donald Trump bucked the establishment of the Republican Party to become its presidential nominee. Rather than taking these events as ominous signs, hedge funds are jumping into the growth-dependent world of copper. The funds and other money managers more than tripled wagers on price gains for the metal last week.

The engine that's driving the optimistic outlook is China, the world's biggest metals consumer. The nation's copper imports in the first half of the year reached an all-time high, customs data showed last week. The country's real-estate sector grew faster than the overall eco…