Major energy commodities prices started the last week of 2011 with sharp gains as crude oil and natural gas prices increased . On the other hand, gold and silver prices continued to decline. Major currencies such as Euro and AUD slightly appreciated against the U.S dollar. Here is a summary of the price developments of precious metals and energy commodities for December 27th:
Precious Metals Prices:
Gold price slightly slipped on Tuesday by 0.65% and reached $1,595.50; Silver price also decreased by 1.18% to reach $28.74. During December, gold price declined by 8.8%, and silver price by 12.39%.
The Euro changed direction again and slightly appreciated against the U.S dollar by 0.21% to 1.3072. The U.S Dollar also depreciated against other currencies such as the Canadian dollar.
Oil and Gas Prices:
WTI oil price continued to recover and rose yesterday by 1.72% to $101.34 per barrel; Brent oil price also increased by 0.52% to $109.82 per barrel;
Due to these changes, the gap between Brent oil price and WTI oil prices slipped to $8.48/bbl. During the month, WTI oil price increased by 1.0%, while Brent oil price declined by 1.3%.
Natural gas Henry Hub future price (January delivery) remained unchanged yesterday at $3.11/mmbtu. The Henry Hub spot price changed direction and sharply increased by 4.78% to $3.07 /mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future price sharply declined to $0.04, 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: