Oil and gas prices continue to freefall –February 7

The second week of February started with falls in major oil and gas prices, including crude oil price (WTI spot) and gas prices (Henry Hub spot).

Let’s quickly review the changes in major energy commodities market and precious metals for February 7th:

Oil and Gas prices:

Crude oil price (WTI spot) fell for the third straight business day, yesterday it declined  by 1.74% as it settled on 87.48 $/b.

Brent spot price declined by only 0.51%, to settle on 99.12$/b.

Up to now, during February the WTI spot prices declined by 2.3%, while Brent spot declined by only 1.3%.

As a result, the spread between the WTI and Brent spot prices has widen a bit and it’s currently 11.64$/b (for more about figuring out the spread between WTI and Brent oil see here).

Apparently, the Egyptian turmoil effect on oil market has subsided for now, as the oil price doesn’t react to the current news in Egypt, despite the situation there hasn’t resolved it self. Thus it seems that oil prices already incorporated the rise in the uncertainty in the Middle East (for more on the Egyptian turmoil and its effect on crude oil price, see here).

Natural gas prices continue to fall as the winter season subsides; however, the NY city gate price rose yesterday by over 30% due to the snowfall in the Northeast. The snow is expected to continue today in some parts of the Northeast and the Midwest.

Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) declined for second straight business day, yesterday by 3.36%, as it reached 4.32$/mmbtu – the lowest level in February.

The backwardation (the spread between the future and spot prices) for Henry Hub is currently -0.21$/mmbtu. This could present an indication of the market expecting the price of natural gas to decline next month – upon the expiry of the March futures.

Precious Metals prices:

Gold price didn’t change much, as it inclined yesterday by 0.06%, as it reached 1,348 $/t oz.

Silver prices inclined yesterday by 0.98% and reached 29.343$/t oz.

EURO/ USD inclined very moderately yesterday by 0.01%, on the other hand, the USD strengthened against the CAD, as the USD/CAD inclined by 0.35%. For a more detailed report on the USD/CAD check out Forex crunch.

A summary of yesterday’s Prices Changes:

The following table presents the main descriptive data from last business day – February 7th, for precious metals, energy commodities and exchange rates. The table includes: settled prices, daily percent change, and quantitative change in US dollars (except for USD/CAD, in which the change is in Canadian dollars):

Natural gas spot price, Crude oil price, current Gold prices Silver prices February 7

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