New York, January 30, 2026, 18:53 EST — After-hours.
- Freeport-McMoRan ended Friday down 7.52% at $60.23, reversing from a fresh 52-week high a day earlier.
- Copper and precious metals slid as traders took profits and the dollar firmed.
- The next test for FCX is whether copper’s pullback carries into next week, with key U.S. data on deck.
Freeport-McMoRan shares fell 7.5% on Friday to close at $60.23, a sharp reversal a day after the stock hit a 52-week high of $69.44. About 40.7 million shares changed hands, according to the company’s quote page.
Copper and precious metals tumbled as investors locked in profits and the dollar firmed after Donald Trump said he had tapped Kevin Warsh to lead the U.S. Federal Reserve, with traders also bracing for a week-long Lunar New Year shutdown in China from Feb. 16. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 1.1% to $13,465 a metric ton after touching a record $14,527.50 on Thursday, and was still up about 6% for January after an 11% gain in December. “Precious metals have discovered gravity,” independent analyst Ross Norman said. Reuters
For Freeport, the swing matters because copper drives earnings and the stock has become a go-to way to express a view on the metal. When copper turns fast, FCX often turns with it.
Thursday’s copper spike was messy, too. Prices jumped to a record above $14,000 a ton before giving back much of the move, and Neil Welsh at Britannia Global Markets pointed to “intense speculative trading” as a key driver. Reuters
Goldman Sachs analysts have warned the rally could reverse in the second quarter if U.S. trade policy shifts toward tariffs on refined copper. José Torres at Interactive Brokers called copper “nosebleed levels,” while Kieran Tompkins at Capital Economics said the surge looked “fueled by speculation” and Eoin Dinsmore wrote that copper had “overshot” fair value. markets.businessinsider.com
The selloff was not confined to copper names. Newmont and Freeport were among the day’s big laggards in large-cap miners as metals prices dropped.
Beyond the day-to-day price swing, traders have been watching a broader reshaping of copper flows linked to tariff threats and price gaps between U.S. delivery and international markets. China’s net imports of refined copper last year were the lowest since 2017, Reuters reported, as exports surged and arbitrage pulled metal toward the United States ahead of tariff decisions that have been deferred until June.
The risk for FCX holders is straightforward: if copper’s drop turns into a deeper correction, miners can face a double hit — weaker price expectations and a rush to unwind crowded trades. The counterpoint is just as simple. If copper steadies and the dollar backs off, dip-buyers often show up quickly in liquid names like FCX.
Next week’s calendar puts the spotlight back on macro signals that can swing the dollar and metals. The U.S. January employment report is due on Feb. 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics release schedule.
