Gold and silver prices slightly increased during yesterday’s trading, even though other commodities such as oil changed direction and declined; natural gas prices continued their downward trend and declined on Wednesday; the Euro and other currencies such as AUD rallied against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday. Here is a summary of the price developments of precious metals and energy commodities for January 18th, 2012:
Precious Metals :
Gold price slightly increased on Wednesday by 0.26% to $1,659.90; Silver also increased by 1.35% to reach $30.54. During January, gold increased by 5.9%, and silver by 9.41%.
The Euro/USD sharply increased yesterday by 0.99% to 1.2863; the U.S Dollar also depreciated against other currencies such as the Canadian dollar.
Oil and Gas :
WTI price changed direction and slightly decreased by 0.12% to $100.59 per barrel; Brent oil price also fell by 0.73% to $110.45 per barrel;
Due to these changes, the gap between Brent oil price and WTI oil prices fell to $9.86/bbl. During January, WTI oil price rose by 1.8%, and Brent oil price by 2.7%.
Henry Hub future (February delivery) fell again by 0.8% to $2.47 /mmbtu. The Henry Hub spot price also declined to $2.49 /mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future price remained at -$0.02, i.e. Backwardation.
A Summary of Yesterday’s Prices Changes:
The table below includes: closing prices, daily percent change, and change in prices and indexes in USD (except for USD/CAD, in which the change is in Canadian dollar):
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