Money managers cut wagers on copper rally for a second week

New York

IT'S been barely a month since investors first started betting on a copper rally, and they're already on the retreat.

Money managers cut their wagers on price gains for a second week, pulling back just before futures capped the worst slump in a month. Tuesday's attacks in Brussels sapped confidence in the global growth outlook, while a recovery for the dollar weighed on demand for commodities as alternative assets.

Copper has dropped about 20 per cent in the past year. While Glencore plc and Freeport-McMoRan Inc have reduced production, traders are concerned that the industry's cuts haven't gone deep enough. More than 4.5 million tonnes of additional mine capacity is planned to come online by 2020, and most producers haven't changed their plans to expand even in th…