Gold and silver prices bounced back from Tuesday’s falls and ended yesterday’s trading sharply rising; this rally came after the FOMC’s statement, in which the Fed pledged to keep interest rates low until late 2014. This announcement rekindled the speculation around a future stimulus plan in the months to come. Crude oil prices also increased on Wednesday; natural gas future price continued to rally and sharply rose yesterday. The Euro and other currencies such as Australian dollar appreciated against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday. Here is a summary of the price developments of precious metals and energy commodities for January 25th, 2012:
Precious Metals Prices:
Gold price sharply rose on Wednesday by 2.31% to $1,703.0; Silver price also increased by 3.58% to reach $33.12. During January, gold increased by 8.7%, and silver by 18.65%.
The Euro/USD also increased by 0.54% to 1.3106; the U.S Dollar also depreciated against other currencies such as the Australian dollar.
Oil and Gas Prices:
WTI added 0.38% to its value to $99.13 per barrel; Brent rose 0.07% to $109.79 per barrel;
Due to these changes, the difference between Brent and WTI oil prices slipped to $10.66/bbl. During January, WTI oil price rose by 0.3%, and Brent by 2.1%.
The Henry Hub future price (February delivery) sharply rose by 7.06% to $2.73/mmbtu. The Henry Hub spot slightly fell to $2.61/mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future price rose to $0.12, i.e. Contango.
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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