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The Copper Monthly Metals Index (MMI) increased by three points this month to 76, the highest value seen since hitting 78 in May. Individual price increases in the Copper MMI basket fell in the range of roughly 1-6%. LME copper prices managed to regain the $6,200 level but proceeded to move sideways from there due to a lack of further indications regarding a pickup in demand. From a longer-term perspective, copper prices do not appear particularly strong, but they have not dropped all the way back to 2016 price levels ...

Oil prices steadied on Monday as investors shifted their focus away from easing Mideast tensions to this week’s scheduled signing of an initial U.S.-China trade deal whose details remain to be seen. Brent crude was up 3 cents at $65.01 per barrel at 1320 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 6 cents at $59.10 a barrel from the previous session. Oil prices surged to their highest in almost four months after a U.S. drone strike killed an Iranian commander and Iran retaliated with missiles launched against U.S. ...

The world economy cannot afford an oil barrel price hitting $100, said the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA). IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol pointed out that the slowdown in economic growth hinders the increase in China’s demand for oil. Oil prices fell amid weak demand and adequate supplies during H2 2019 and are currently trading at levels of $65 per barrel, for Brent crude. In an interview with Bloomberg TV in which he talked about issues related to Iraq and oil, Birol said Iraq’s stability in very important. ...

The US still needs Middle East oil for stability and the spare capacity of OPEC member countries despite President Donald Trump’s assertions to the contrary, analysts said at a forum on Sunday. “Clearly, oil from this region still matters,” Helima Croft, managing director and global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi. “We still take imports into the United States, particularly the heavier barrels. The US story is, largely, a light story but also it’s a globally traded product ...

U.S. gas prices have fallen even further in recent weeks as the market tries to avert a glut by encouraging power producers to maximise gas combustion and switch away from coal. Warmer-than-normal temperatures over the last three weeks have been responsible for pushing prompt gas prices within a whisker of multi-year lows. Futures prices for gas delivered at Henry Hub in March 2020 fell to just $2.09 per million British thermal units on Jan. 2, the lowest since the contract started trading in 2008. Since then, prices for gas deliveries ...

Permian Basin forward gas prices are testing new lows this month as the 2020 market outlook for available pipeline capacity exiting the West Texas basin continues to deteriorate. At market close Wednesday, the balance-2020 curve at Waha dipped to its lowest on record at 63 cents/MMBtu. Shoulder-season prices for this year have faced even more downward pressure, with April and May calendar-month contracts falling to an average of just 15 cents/MMBtu earlier this month, S&P Global Platts M2MS data shows. The cash market hasn’t fared much better. After dipping into ...

Following the assassination of Soleimani, Saudi Aramco’s share price fell to SR34.2 on 8 January; Richard Thompson, Editorial Director at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, provides his view: “There are two primary factors behind the volatility in the Aramco share price. The most obvious is the heightening of regional geopolitical tensions since Soleimani’s killing by the US. The second relates to a prolonged period of subdued oil demand in the global energy markets, led by the protracted US-China trade war. “Following the Soleimani killing, global oil prices surged ...

Global stocks drifted higher Monday on signs that geopolitical risks are in check with no new tensions arising in the Middle East over the weekend following the U.S. airstrike that killed an Iranian leader earlier this month. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.3%. The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 gauge wavered between gains and losses. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index closed up 0.8%. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have eased in recent days, with the spotlight on the Islamic Republic after it admitted last ...

The U.S. dollar, which has dominated currency market trading for the last two years, looks set to do so again in 2020, according to the latest Reuters poll of foreign exchange strategists. While most of those who forecast spot FX rates are still clinging to a view that the euro may edge up slightly by the end of the year, when asked about the overall trend, few say the well-established dollar dominance is about to quickly fade. Part of that stems from the recent flare-up in tensions between the United ...

A leading commodities expert at Goldman Sachs has raised doubts over China buying at least $40 billion worth of U.S. farming goods to satisfy terms of the “phase one” trade deal. The U.S. and China plan to sign the first draft of the trade pact on January 15 which will see tariffs eased and changes introduced to rules surrounding intellectual property and technology. Washington is also demanding that China buys between $40 billion and $50 billion worth of agricultural goods from the U.S. each year. Speaking to CNBC’s “Street Signs” ...

In the week ahead, the U.S. Treasury Department publishes fresh data on government budget deficits, the Labor Department releases figures on inflation and the Commerce Department publishes data on retail sales in December. China also releases data on economic output. Monday: The Treasury Department publishes data on how much the government spent and collected in taxes in December, providing a snapshot of the U.S.’s growing budget deficit since the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. Deficits have been rising for the past two years following tax cuts and ...

A change of trade policy, particularly in the United States, has had a disruptive effect on the global economy, said Dr. Ira Kalish, chief global economist of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. “We’ve already seen a pretty substantial deceleration of economic growth globally … And it has a lot to do with the fact that the U.S. has over the past three years essentially turned inward,” said Kalish when addressing a session titled Global Economic Landscape: A Look at China at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on ...

The Trump administration has introduced a series of trade tariffs against China to punish the second-largest global economy for its “unfair trade practices,” according to the BBC. China, in turn, imposed tariffs on U.S. imports, especially on agricultural products. The U.S. and China are the world’s largest economies with huge demand and supply potential for each other. China exports 70% of the footwear sold in the U.S., and according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in 2018, the U.S. exported more than $9 billion worth of agricultural ...

Despite the slowdown across all major economies, it is shocking to see the Indian economy faltering at such a faster pace. According to the latest forecast by India’s National Statistical Office, the economy is estimated to have grown only 5 percent over 2019-20, slower than the previous year’s 6.8 percent and its worst performance in 11 years. More worryingly, a 5 percent growth rate may be just the beginning of a slowdown cycle that can hardly be reversed. Without some “big-bang” measures from the Modi government, the country’s economy might ...

China’s commitments in the Phase 1 trade deal with the United States were not changed during a lengthy translation process and will be released this week as the document is signed in Washington, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. Mnuchin told Fox News Channel that the deal reached on Dec. 13 still calls for China to buy $40 billion to $50 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products annually and a total of $200 billion of U.S. goods over two years. “It wasn’t changed in translation. I don’t know where that ...