The Middle East is heating up… The Egyptian riots are renewed despite the steps taken by President Hosni Mubarak after his speech. As a result crude oil price sharply rose during the last day of the week, gold and silver price also sharply inclined, while natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) dramatically fell.
Here is a daily recap for January 27th of the major energy commodities market and the precious metals market:
Oil and Gas prices:
Crude oil price (WTI spot) after falling on Thursday by 1.94%, yesterday it rose very sharply by 4.32% as it settled on 89.34 $/b;
The Egyptian riots were renewed yesterday after President Hosni Mubarak addressed the Egyptian nation in order to stabilize the region.
The riots in Egypt are an attempt by its people to overthrow the current ruling of President Hosni Mubarak of the past 30 years.
The president took steps to calm down the rioters by firing the current government and promising to appoint a new government later on today. These steps, however, didn’t satisfy the people of Egypt as they still call for Mubarak to resign.
The riots spread to major cities throughout Egypt, including Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. Up to now, the estimates are that 24 people dies and nearly thousand wounded.
As a result, the stability in the Middle East is jeopardized and thus major energy commodities including crude oil price (WTI and Brent) increased very rapidly yesterday during trade.
The level of uncertainty is currently high in this unstable region as Tunisia started off a couple of weeks back the overthrow of its government and ruler. Now this instability entered Egypt. As the riots will continue, this situation could further raise the explosiveness in the Middle East, and increase the uncertainty regarding major energy commodities which could further affect oil prices to rise.
Despite the riots in the Middle East, the natural gas spot price (Henry Hub declined yesterday by 2.5%.
Precious Metals prices:
Gold prices, much like crude oil price, sharply inclined by 1.66% and reached 1,341 $/t oz.
Silver prices also inclined yesterday by 3.29% and reached 27.919$/t oz.
EURO/ USD, as a result of the Middle East riots, sharply declined yesterday by 0.9%, the USD also strengthened against the CAD, as the USD/ CAD inclined by 0.8%. For a more detailed report on the EURO/USD check out Forex crunch.
A summary of yesterday’s Prices Changes:
The following table presents the main descriptive data from last business day – January 28th, for precious metals, energy commodities and exchange rates. The table includes: settled prices, daily percent change, and quantitative change in US dollars (except for USD/CAD, in which the change is in Canadian dollars):
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