Stocks shrug, copper goes full rocket ship

Main character energy: copper

The S&P 500 kept flirting with record territory, but the bigger story was hiding in plain sight: commodities were ripping. Copper punched to a fresh high, silver lapped up the spotlight with a monster move, and crude oil climbed back near the upper end of its recent range. If you’re wondering why the market suddenly looks a little more paranoid, the answer is simple: inflation isn’t dead, it’s just wearing a fake mustache.

Why traders cared

A few things had the tape feeling spicy:

• President Trump’s late-Sunday Truth Social post effectively brushed off Iran’s counter-proposal, keeping geopolitical jitters alive.
• Oil prices jumped, which doesn’t exactly scream “calm, low-inflation paradise.”
• Bond yields moved higher, a polite way of saying the market is dialing back its enthusiasm for near-term Fed cuts.
• Tuesday’s April CPI report is now the next big tell on whether inflation is re-accelerating or just having a noisy morning.

Winners, losers, and the usual suspects

Energy had the cleanest excuse to party, with the sector lifted by higher crude. Materials also got a boost as copper and silver surged, while gold miners caught the memo and climbed too. On the flip side, airlines and homebuilders got squeezed by the combo of pricier fuel and sticky yields — the market’s version of a double espresso and no nap.

The bigger picture

This isn’t just a one-day sector shuffle. When copper is making all-time highs and yields are creeping up at the same time, investors start gaming out a world where growth is okay, inflation is sticky, and rate cuts may be slower than the crowd hoped. Big picture: the market still wants to rally, but it’s now doing it with one eye on the inflation tape and the other on geopolitics.