The U.S. labor report was published yesterday and showed good numbers as the non-farm employment grew by 120k in November. This may have been among the factor to help rally some of the commodities prices: Gold price slightly increased while silver price slipped. Crude oil prices also slightly rose. Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) continued to decline. Major currencies such as Euro depreciated against the US dollar. Here is a summary of the price developments of precious metals and energy commodities for December 2nd:
Precious Metals Prices:
Gold price slightly increased on Friday by 0.66% and reached $1,751.30; Silver price on the other hand slipped by 0.22% to reach $32.69. During the week, gold price rose by 2.1%, and silver price increased by 1.4%.
The Euro depreciated against the US dollar by 0.53% to 1.3391. The US Dollar also appreciated against currencies such as the Canadian dollar.
Oil and Gas Prices:
WTI oil price slightly rose yesterday by 0.76% to $100.96 per barrel; Brent oil price also rose by 0.91% to $110.35 per barrel;
Due these changes, the difference between Brent oil price and WTI oil prices slightly rose to $9.39/bbl. During the week, WTI oil price increased by 2.8%, while Brent oil price slightly increased by 0.9%.
Natural gas Henry Hub future price (January delivery) declined by 1.92% to $3.58/mmbtu. The Henry Hub spot price fell by 3.72% to $3.36/mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future price rose to $0.22, 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):
For further reading:
Weekly Analysis and Outlook: