Major commodities prices didn’t move on the last day of the week in the same direction as gold price slightly slipped, while silver price moderately inclined; crude oil prices slightly rose, while natural gas (Henry Hub) prices sharply declined. The news of the gains in the U.S. core durable goods in November and the rise in the new home sales may have helped push up crude oil prices and American stock markets. Major currencies also moved in different direction and the Euro and GBP slightly fell against the U.S dollar, while AUD and Yen slightly appreciated against the U.S. dollar. Here is a summary of the price developments of precious metals and energy commodities for December 23rd:
Precious Metals Prices:
Gold price slightly declined on Friday by 0.29% and reached $1,606.00; Silver price on the other hand increased by 0.13% to reach $29.08. During December, gold price declined by 8.2%, and silver price by 11.34%.
The Euro changed direction again and moderately depreciated against the U.S dollar by 0.05% to 1.3044. The U.S Dollar on the other hand depreciated against other currencies such as the Australian dollar.
Oil and Gas Prices:
WTI oil price continued to rally and inclined yesterday by 0.15% to $99.63 per barrel; Brent oil price also rose by 0.36% to $109.25 per barrel;
Due to these changes, the gap between Brent oil price and WTI oil prices slightly rose to $9.62/bbl. During the month, WTI oil price declined by 0.7%, and Brent oil price by 1.9%.
Natural gas Henry Hub future price (January delivery) fell yesterday by 1.89% to $3.11/mmbtu. The Henry Hub spot price also sharply decreased by 4.87% to $2.93 /mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future price inclined to $0.18, 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: