Copper and Zinc -- Higher, Higher!

Macquarie Bank (Australia's biggest investment bank) is raising its forecasts for copper and zinc as inventories for both metals fall off a cliff...

"We have again been proven too conservative as the improving macroeconomic
backdrop has shored up the demand outlook while ongoing supply disruptions
continue to dampen the supply-side response," the Macquarie analysts said.

Macquarie revised its prediction of a global surplus of refined copper for
this year to a deficit. It raised its copper price forecasts for 2007 to 2010 by
between 8.3% and 48%.

The bank increased its 2006 zinc prices forecasts by 4.7% to $1.23 a
pound, or double last year's average price of 62.6 cents on the London Metal
Exchange, or LME. Zinc is used to galvanize steel.

You know what's in even shorter supply? Aluminum -- there's only a nine-day global supply right now. And I expect hurricane season to stoke aluminum demand like a mighty wind (aluminum is a building material much in demand after hurricanes)

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