“The lack of clarity on supply and demand fundamentals, in particular the status of the Chinese economy, has caused copper prices to maintain a holding pattern. In our view, this slow grind lower will likely continue for the next few weeks until strong enough data are released to force the market to reconsider expectations,” Barclays Capital said.

http://www.fastmarkets.com/base-metals-news/lme-morning-copper-stuck-under-5-000t-as-tightness-eases-base-metals-soft-104021

Longer term, fundamentals support higher prices. Even if demand does not improve, average grades from mines should contiue to fall, putting an added burden on producers.

http://www.aqmcopper.com/s/CopperFundamentals.asp

"Predictably, those that were the top performing materials one year are often times the worst performing the following year. Vice versa, the commodity that saw the greatest retracement in its price the preceding years usually had a sharp spike in price the following years." - Eric Sprott

http://cms.sprottglobal.com/thoughts/articles/the-cycles-of-commodities/

In my opinion then, we has seen the tide ebb, and should be preparing now for the flood.

Hope this helps.

VP