Major commodities prices took a dive yesterday after crude oil prices had rose during the past six consecutive business days. Gold and silver prices also plummeted yesterday. The sharp fall in major commodities prices was probably stemmed, in part, from the sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar: Major currencies such as Euro and AUD changed direction and sharply depreciated against the U.S dollar. Here is a summary of the price developments of precious metals and energy commodities for December 28th:
Precious Metals Prices:
Gold price sharply fell on Wednesday by 1.97% and reached $1,564.10; Silver price also decreased by 5.24% to reach $27.23. During December, gold price declined by 10.6%, and silver price by 16.98%.
The Euro changed direction again and sharply depreciated against the U.S dollar by 1.00% to 1.2941. The U.S Dollar also appreciated against other currencies such as the Australian dollar.
Oil and Gas Prices:
WTI oil price changed direction as well and sharply declined yesterday by 1.95% to $99.36 per barrel; Brent oil price also decreased by 1.41% to $108.27 per barrel;
Due to these changes, the gap between Brent oil price and WTI oil prices slightly rose to $8.91/bbl. During the month, WTI oil price declined by 1.0%, and Brent oil price by 2.7%.
Natural gas Henry Hub future price (January delivery) slightly rose by 0.64% to $3.13/mmbtu. The Henry Hub spot price also increased by 0.33% to $3.08 /mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future price slightly increased to $0.54, 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: