Major commodities prices changed direction and mostly declined throughout yesterday. Crude oil price declined by nearly 1%; natural gas future price also changed direction and plummeted; gold and silver prices also decreased for the third consecutive business day. Finally, the Euro slipped again against the U.S. dollar for the third consecutive day; other currencies such as the Canadian dollar also slipped vs. the USD.
Here is a summary of the daily shifts in precious metals and energy commodities for May 2nd, 2012:
Precious Metals:
Gold price declined by 0.51% to $1,654; Silver price also slipped by 0.92% and reached $30.65. During the week, gold declined by 0.6% and silver by 2.4%.
The Euro/USD also declined by 0.58% to 1.3158; furthermore, the U.S Dollar continued to appreciate against other exchange rates such as the Canadian dollar.
Energy Commodities:
WTI oil price declined by 0.89% to $105.22 per barrel; Brent oil also fell by 1.07% to $118.16 per barrel;
Following these developments, the difference between Brent and WTI oil prices reached $12.94/bbl. During the week, WTI rose by 0.3% while Brent oil declined by 1.5%.
The Henry Hub future (June delivery) sharply declined by 4.64% to $2.26/mmbtu; the Henry Hub spot price rose to $2.31/mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future was -$0.05/mmbtu, i.e. Backwardation.
A Summary of Changes for May 2nd:
The table below includes: closing prices, daily percent changes, and daily changes:
For further reading: