Copper is down sharply this morning, losing more than 5 cents to trade at $3.27/pound. The way to play the weakness shown this morning in the base metal is by shorting the iPath DJ-UBS Copper TR Sub-Idx ETF (NYSE:

) or shorting Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, (NYSE:

). Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. engages in the exploration, mining, and production of mineral resources. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and cobalt deposits. With recent weaker than expected economic data, there are concerns that the demand for base metals, particularly, copper, are weakening. Yesterday, jobless claims were much higher than expected, showing new claims of 500,000, 25,000 higher than expected. The Philadelphia Fed Index was also much weaker than expected, showing a reading of -7.7. Expectations had been significantly higher, looking for a reading of 7.0. Shares of Freeport are indicated to open lower this morning, as is the iPath DJ-UBS Copper ETF.