Koperfoks, agree on the manipulation for precious metals, but the last 6 months of chop has been more consolidation in a bull pm market.  Painful as usual.

Now, copper is a different story, but I wouldn't agree that it's not manipulated.  For the short term, in my humble opinion I think we have two short term headwinds.  

1) near term upside in the US dollar - DXY, though still think longer term dollar down.  Too many dollar shorts out there not to have a dollar squeeze higher.

2) while US FED still has the printing press running, it's not enough to cover expenditures for the US Gov.  That's basically "tighter monetary policy" by the US FED in the short term.  That's putting pressure on dollar higher and US yields.

I don't follow the zigs and zags of the copper market like I do precious metals, but I think a stronger dollar and US monetary tightening has put the brakes on the roaring bull copper market for now. 

Once the next US stimulus is passed and US FED ramps up more QE to absorb US Gov spending, then that should put a tailwind to copper.  If FED doesn't increase QE, US treasury yields will move higher, and if too high, we've got a worldwide $hitstorm coming.

Next FOMC meeting is March 16-17.