Commodities Outlook Dims as Trump Disbands Councils

President Donald Trump’s decision last week to disband the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategy and Policy Forum not only puts his agenda to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure in jeopardy, it also weakens the precarious support commodities such as copper, steel and crude oil have relied upon.

Although not stellar, global commodity prices had shown decent support ever since it became clear that Trump had a shot at the White House, with infrastructure at the top of his agenda. His promise to “rebuild our country with American workers, American iron, American aluminum and American steel,” while touting a Mexican border wall, became the crutch for a deeply wounded industry facing excess inventories alongside more efficient manufacturing and raw material applications. As recently as Aug. 15, he issued an executive order directing federal agencies to more quickly review the environmental effects of infrastructure projects, a bid to speed up the construction of the roads, rails, bridges and pipelines he has promised.