The first day of the month started off with the breaking news about the killing of bin Laden (see here for more on the subject). This news stirred up the financial markets at first, but by the end of the business day major commodities balanced out, except for silver prices that fell very precipitately by over 5%.
Here is a summary of the changes in commodities and precious metals for May 2nd:
Precious Metals prices:
Silver prices, after rising for three straight days, they fell yesterday by 5.18% to 46.08$; gold price, on the other hand, almost didn’t change as it inclined by 0.04% and reached 1,557 – its highest price level during 2011.
During April, gold prices increased by 8.9%, and silver prices rose by 28.8%.
Oil and Gas prices:
Spot oil price (WTI) moderately declined by 0.36% to reach 113.52$/b; during April the WTI spot oil price rose by 5.9%.
Brent spot price also fell by 1.35% and reached 124.36$/b.
As a result, the difference between Brent and WTI moderately declined to 10.84$/b.
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) inclined yesterday by 2.44% and reached 4.61$/mmbtu – its highest level since February 3rd.
The Henry Hub future price on the other hand decreased by 0.21% to 4.69$/mmbtu, as a result the spread between future and spot price started the month of May at +0.08$, i.e. contango.
EURO/ USD increased by a moderate rate of 0.16%, as the USD depreciates against the EURO.
For a more detailed report on major currencies, check out Forex crunch.
A summary of yesterday’s Prices Changes:
The table below includes: closing prices, daily percent change, and change in US dollars (except for USD/CAD, in which the change is in Canadian dollars):
[ratings]
For further reading (in this site):
- Oil prices fall as news on bin Laden stirs markets – oil outlook 2 May
- Gold & Silver Prices Outlook – 2 May
- Weekly outlook for May 2-6
Monthly Analysis and Outlook:
- Natural gas prices outlook for May 2011
- Crude oil prices Monthly outlook –April 2011
- Gold prices outlook for April 2011 – what’s next for gold?