Commodities market didn’t perform well on the last day of the month as gold and silver prices decreased. Crude oil prices changed direction and edged down on April 30th after they had increased for four consecutive days. On the other hand, natural gas prices sharply increased and continued their upward trend. Finally, the Euro edged down against the U.S. dollar for the first time in the past five business days; other currencies such as the Australian dollar also slipped vs. the USD.
Here is a summary of the daily shifts in precious metals and energy commodities for April 30th, 2012:
Precious Metals:
Gold price slipped by 0.04% to $1,664.2; Silver price also decreased by 1.26% and reached $31.02. During April, gold declined by 0.46% and silver by 4.52%.
The Euro/USD edged down by 0.11% to 1.3239; furthermore, the U.S Dollar also depreciated against other exchange rates such as the Aussie dollar.
Energy Commodities:
WTI oil price slightly declined by 0.06% to $104.87 per barrel; Brent oil also traded down by 0.29% to $119.67 per barrel;
Following these shifts, the gap between Brent and WTI oil prices reached $15.09/bbl. During the month, WTI edged up by 1.85% while Brent oil declined by 3.1%.
The Henry Hub future (May delivery) sharply rose again this time by 4.11% to $2.28/mmbtu; the Henry Hub spot price increased to $2.11/mmbtu; the difference between the spot and future was $0.17/mmbtu, i.e. Contango.
A Summary of Changes for April 30th:
The table below includes: closing prices, daily percent changes, and daily changes:
For further reading: