Crude oil price rises to start the week – Dec 20th

News Update:

After last week’s moderate rises in major commodities such as Gold and Crude oil, this week started on a positive note with moderate rises in most commodities, which could set the tone for the week, especially since there is a cold front throughout Europe which practically disabled many countries.

This recent cold weather could affect the prices of energy as Europe’s demand for heating is expected to rise.

Also, since we are before Christmas, there is an increase in volatility, according to Bloomberg, as consumers’ demand becomes hard to measure.

As we are getting closer to the end of year, the summations about 2010’s financial performance, and the outlook for 2011 is ubiquitous among major news websites, here is a small sample:

According to FT.com, traders expect in 2011 that equities and gold will rise, and other major commodities’ rise will depend on China’s economic growth.

Bloomberg stats that major oil traders speculate that based on the projections on the U.S. economy, it will continue recovering in 2011; this could boost the demand for crude oil next year.

Prices:

Here is an update on the prices of main energy and precious metals commodities for December 20th:

Energy

Crude oil prices starts off the week with moderate rises after the weekend; This could be part of the zigzag in the WTI prices which were characterized with no apparent trend for the month of December:

The crude oil price of short term futures (Nymex) – delivery for January 2011, as of 17.34 PM GMT, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, is currently traded at 88.31 USD per barrel, which represents a 0.29 USD/b increase or a 0.33% rise.

The Dated Brent spot crude oil is at 91.76 USD per barrel – a 0.36 USD per barrel rise as of 17.45 PM GMT.

The WTI spot price is trading as of 17.31PM GMT at 88.41 USD per barrel, a moderate increase of 0.44% compare to the end of last week.

Natural Gas future price (the Nymex Henry Hub Future) is currently traded as of 16.53 PM GMT, at 4.15 $ MMBTU (one million BTU), an increase of 0.08 which is 2%.

Precious Metals

Gold price continue to rise as it as it did at the end of the last week, as the short term January delivery future (Gold 100 oz.) is currently traded at 1,384 USD /t. oz., a 0.4% increase or 5.5 USD /t. oz. at 17.46 PM GMT.

Silver price, as of 16.56 PM GMT, is traded at 29.23 $/t oz. a 0.33% increase or 0.097 $/t oz, and thus Silver gets closer to the 30 USD mark.

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