The commodity supercycle is breaking out... copper demand from AI data centers could hit 572,000 tonnes by 2028... how Eric, Louis and Jonathan are playing the supply crisis VIEW IN BROWSER As I write on Monday, a handful of weekend headlines are weighing on the market… - The Justice Department has reportedly opened an investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, centered on potential inconsistencies in his testimony regarding the expenses related to the Fed's headquarters renovation.
- In response, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he would block any future Trump nominees to the Federal Reserve until the issue is resolved.
- President Trump floated the idea of capping credit card interest rates at 10%.
- And he also signaled he may keep Exxon out of Venezuela, following comments from Exxon's CEO that the country is currently "un-investable."
Any one of these headlines could evolve into something that materially impacts your portfolio. But right now, they’re distractions. These kinds of headlines dominate short-term news cycles, spark knee-jerk reactions, and pull investors’ attention away from what actually matters – the large, structural forces that shape markets over years, not days. That’s where real wealth is created – and it brings us to today’s Digest. As we look ahead to 2026 and beyond, commodities are setting up for a massive move Today, we’ll dive into why that move is likely to be higher. Potentially, much, much higher. The setup has been years in the making. And now, the technical picture, fundamental dynamics and macroeconomic forces are all aligning. To unpack this, let’s begin by revisiting the concept of a “commodity supercycle” with the help of macro investing expert Eric Fry of Fry’s Investment Report. Eric identified our current supercycle all the way back in summer 2020. That’s when he positioned his readers in mining giant Freeport-McMoRan (FCX). By spring of 2021, investors who followed Eric into his recommended call option walked away with a 1,350% return. Here’s Eric, all the way back at the start of the decade, explaining these cycles: Unlike stocks, which tend to move higher over time, commodity prices cycle through powerful multiyear booms followed by spectacular multiyear busts – known as “supercycles.” No two supercycles are identical. But they all share two distinct traits: - In their youth, they produce huge investment gains.
- In their advanced years, they produce huge investment losses.
That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to them early on. They grow up so fast.
The easiest way to monitor a commodities supercycle is through the TR/CC CRB Commodity Index (CRB), which holds a basket of global commodities. Below, we look at the CRB Index over the past 25 years, noting the timing of Eric’s “buy” recommendation. 
That entry point proved well-timed. But like all supercycles, the journey hasn’t been a straight line higher. The supercycle ran into a "super-slump" in 2022 that caught many investors off guard While this pause surprised the market, it was consistent with how commodity supercycles have always unfolded. Unlike secular trends in equities, commodities don’t glide higher. They surge, stall, correct, and consolidate – often violently – before the next leg begins. In fact, these pauses are often necessary. They allow excess demand to cool, inventories to normalize, and speculative froth to clear before the cycle can resume. Here’s how Goldman Sachs put it back in its 2023 Commodity Outlook research report: Commodity supercycles never move in a straight line; rather, they are a sequence of price spikes, with each high and low higher than the previous spike. Once high prices have rebalanced the market in the short term, the high prices are no longer needed, and prices come crashing back down. But ending one spike doesn’t mean the end of the supercycle – long-run supply issues take years to resolve.
In other words, supercycles don’t end because prices pull back; they end when supply finally catches up. Put a pin in that supply-and-demand point. We’ll come back to it shortly. Recommended Link | | Luke Lango, who was once voted America’s Top Stock Picker, just released his #1 AI investment right now… he’s even giving this recommendation away for free. This AI company is positioned to take over a $1.9 trillion industry that has yet to be disrupted. The incredible thing is… not too many people are paying attention to this company right now (you’ll see why here )… And that’s why Luke says this stock — trading around $8 right now — could be the next big 1,000% AI winner. Click here to get the name and ticker symbol right now. |  | |
First, though the supercycle was far from over, we had to respect that pause After all, as Goldman noted, it could take months or years to play out before the next spike arrived. Sure enough, the CRB Index moved sideways for years, and even today, it trades below its high in 2022. But this prolonged consolidation achieved something important: it absorbed the excesses of the prior spike without breaking the long-term uptrend. That’s exactly the kind of behavior that market technicians look for – it hints at a major move building momentum rather than being exhausted. Below, let’s look at the commodities chart again. This time, notice what’s been happening since 2022. Namely, the CRB Index has been moving in a pattern called an “ascending triangle pattern.” Typically, this is bullish, suggesting that an existing uptrend will likely continue after the pattern completes and the asset “breaks out.” 
While nothing is ever certain in the market, this is the kind of “fat pitch” setup that puts the odds in our favor. So, the question becomes: Which commodity stands to benefit most? In commodity supercycles, the metals most tied to industrial transformation tend to lead Which brings us to copper. “Dr. Copper” sits at the center of electrification, grid expansion, automation, and AI infrastructure worldwide. The metal earned its "doctor" nickname from economists because copper demand has historically diagnosed the health of the global economy. When copper prices rise, it signals industrial expansion. When they fall, a recession often follows. But what's happening now goes beyond traditional economic cycles. Several forces are converging to push copper significantly higher. And one demand driver stands head and shoulders above the rest… The massive AI data center buildout. These facilities require enormous volumes of copper, and yet global supply is nowhere near keeping pace. Unlike cyclical construction booms or short-lived industrial fads, AI demand is becoming embedded in the backbone of the modern economy as data center growth accelerates.
For more on this explosive demand dynamic, let's turn to legendary investor Louis Navellier, editor of Growth Investor.
What the explosion of data centers means for copper A few weeks ago, Louis published his predictions for 2026 – and one of them directly ties into our opportunity today. From Louis: The AI Revolution is very real, and the data center buildout continues to accelerate. As you can see in the chart below, construction activity has surged over the past two years, underscoring the magnitude of this infrastructure expansion.
But Louis’ data covers what happened in the past. What about looking forward? For that, here's JLL, a leading real estate and investment management firm: Nearly 100 GW of new data centers will be added between 2026 and 2030, doubling global capacity. The sector is experiencing an infrastructure investment supercycle requiring up to $3 trillion by 2030. Roughly 100 GW of new capacity is anticipated to come online between 2026 and 2030.
Let that number sink in: $3 trillion. These facilities aren’t just warehouses for servers. They are energy-intensive, redundancy-heavy power hubs – essentially industrial-scale electrical systems operating 24/7. Let’s now make this airtight, linking copper and data centers directly. Here’s MarketBeat: A standard data center uses significant copper for cabling and power distribution, but the new generation of AI-specific centers requires exponentially more. Data from BloombergNEF indicates that copper demand specifically for data centers could reach 572,000 tonnes annually by 2028.
That's roughly equivalent to adding another Chile – the world's largest copper producer – to global annual demand in just four years. The problem? Supply can't keep pace Here's where the bullish thesis gets even stronger. Back to MarketBeat: This surge in demand is colliding with a rigid, unresponsive supply chain. In the tech sector, software can be updated overnight. In the mining sector, reality moves much more slowly. It takes, on average, over 15 years to discover, obtain permits for and build a new copper mine.
Think about that timeline. The AI data center boom accelerated in 2023 with the launch of ChatGPT. Even if mining companies started planning new copper projects that very day, most wouldn't produce their first ounce until 2038 or later. This imbalance is already creating serious constraints. For the latest on the supply/demand mismatch, let's return to Eric and his Investment Report update from last month: The copper market is tilting toward long-term deficits. The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) expects today’s refined-copper balance to flip into a deficit of roughly 150,000 tonnes next year, as mine production growth slows and concentrate availability tightens. UBS anticipates an even larger deficit of 400,000 tonnes. Looking further down the road, the IEA’s latest critical-minerals outlook cites copper as one of the biggest “problem children” in the commodity world. Even if every currently announced copper project advances into production, the IEA still sees a 30% supply gap by 2035.
That mismatch – explosive demand meeting glacial supply response – is exactly how bullish commodity price shocks are born. It's also exactly the kind of setup that defines the next leg of a commodity supercycle. This is already translating into actionable trades For more on how to play this, let's turn to veteran trader Jonathan Rose. He’s been tracking this setup from a trading perspective based on the price chart itself. For newer Digest readers, Jonathan earned his stripes at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, going toe-to-toe with some of the world's most aggressive moneymakers. Over his career, he's generated more than $10 million trading through bull markets, bear markets and everything in between. One of his latest trades has him looking to profit on BHP Group (BHP), one of the world’s largest copper miners. From Jonathan: We just booked a successful trade in BHP over the holidays, but the underlying story hasn’t gone away — if anything, it’s getting stronger. Copper continues to grind higher, and that matters because BHP sits right at the center of that flow. Looking at the relative performance, BHP is lagging as other copper-exposed names are moving higher and faster. That kind of disconnect doesn’t tend to persist for long.
By the way, that “successful” trade on BHP that Jonathan’s subscribers made over the holidays? It was a call option that made them 152%. Jonathan is recommending another BHP call this time around. If you’d like the specifics as a Divergence Trader subscriber, click here to learn about joining him. By the way, if you’re new to options but would like to learn more, check out Jonathan’s Masters in Trading Challenge. Don’t worry if you know nothing about options – and if you’re skeptical, even better. The course is all about learning, with Jonathan holding your hand through the concepts until they become like second nature. As he says: You’ve got nothing to prove. You’ve just got to be willing to learn.
Coming full circle, let's return to Eric for the bottom line He got us into this copper trade years ago. So, we’re looking to him for guidance as the next leg higher builds. Here's his overall take: The IEA’s conclusion is blunt: Copper is one of the most vulnerable links in the global supply chain for the energy transition and AI build-out. Without more than $200 billion of new investment, the world simply won’t have enough copper. So, the short-term story is simple; demand is growing faster than expected, supply is growing slower than expected, and the market is already slipping into deficit.
To us, this is a no-brainer investment setup. The technical picture shows an ascending triangle ready to break out. The fundamental picture shows exploding demand colliding with constrained supply. And the macro picture shows a supercycle that's absorbed its correction and is coiling for the next surge. For exactly how Eric is playing copper today – and to get all his updates and analysis on the red metal – click here to learn about joining him in Investment Report. Have a good evening, Jeff Remsburg | 
