Following the news of the U.S. non-farm employment that didn’t present big numbers with only an 115,000 increase in employment, major commodities prices and U.S stock markets indexes plummeted. Crude oil prices sharply fell by almost 4%; natural gas future price also sharply declined. Gold and silver prices on the other hand increased after they had both declined in the past four consecutive business days. Finally, the Euro decreased again against the U.S. dollar for the fifth consecutive day; other currencies such as the Australian dollar also fell vs. the USD.
Here is a summary of the daily shifts in precious metals and energy commodities for May 4th, 2012:
Precious Metals:
Gold price increased by 0.64% to $1,645; Silver price also rose by 1.41% and reached $30.43. During the week, gold declined by 1.2% and silver by 3.1%.
The Euro/USD slipped by 0.53% to 1.3083; furthermore, the U.S Dollar continued to appreciate against other exchange rates such as the Aussie dollar.
Energy Commodities:
WTI oil price plummeted again by 3.95% to $98.49 per barrel; Brent oil also fell by 2.44% to $113.16 per barrel;
Following these changes, the gap between Brent and WTI oil prices reached $14.67/bbl. During the week, WTI fell by 6.1% and Brent oil declined by 5.7%.
The Henry Hub future (June delivery) sharply fell by 2.56% to $2.28/mmbtu; the Henry Hub spot price rose to $2.31/mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future was -$0.03/mmbtu, i.e. Backwardation.
A Summary of Changes for May 4th:
The table below includes: closing prices, daily percent changes, and daily changes:
For further reading: