After a barnstorming first quarter, the copper price appears to be bucking the wider bull market narrative by trading sideways in the second quarter. COMEX-LME copper arbitrageThere is a sizeable arbitrage window between COMEX and the LME copper price, prices that would normally move in relative harmony. Realization of that squeeze is what was probably behind a sharp reduction in short positions on COMEX held by money managers over the last couple of weeks. Copper consumption on the riseThe reason is not hard to see. According to the Reuters report, Citi estimated that apparent U.S. copper consumption jumped by 22% year over year in January-May.