NEW YORK, May 26 (FintechZoom): Commodities Market Roundup May 26, 2022
Energy
UK retailers soared on Thursday, likely of the government’s recent announcement that it will provide households with funding to cope with their high energy bills.
One of the best performing shares was Ocado, the online retail specialist, one of the best performing shares, up 14 percent. M&S shares rose 8 percent, while B&M homewares shares were up 7.5 percent, and Next clothing shares were up 7 percent, respectively.
Britain’s retailers need the good news; many have recently warned that rising inflation will squeeze their profits, leading to a drop in share prices. In terms of share value, Ocado shares were down roughly half in 2022 until Thursday’s rebound.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the energy support package in the House of Commons on Thursday to support UK households facing further rises in energy bills this autumn. The tax is being paid in part by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies worth £5 billion.
Brent
Brent Crude climbed by 2.41% to $116.65, its international benchmark. As oil prices gained after a supportive weekly inventory report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), prices continued their small gains from previous sessions on Wednesday.
During the week ending May 20, crude oil inventories declined by 1 million barrels. Inventories of crude oil have dropped 14% this year to 419.8 million barrels, compared with the five-year average for this point in the year. There were 500,000 barrels less motor gasoline in the country last week than a week earlier, 8% below the five-year average.
The US refineries’ utilization rate increased by 1.4 percentage points to 93.2%, the highest since mid-2019, ING strategists Warren Patterson and Wenyu Yao said on Thursday.
Crude oil
With the US driving season beginning and Shanghai slowly reopening after two months of lockdowns, oil prices rose early on Thursday, adding gains this week. In July delivery, Brent futures rose $2.85, or 2.8%, to $117.24 a barrel.
Brent’s sixth day of gains is poised to hit its highest close since March 25. WTI is on track to hit its highest closing price since March 23.
Natural gas
Natural gas prices are rising ahead of the air-conditioning season, putting additional pressure on household budgets and manufacturing costs.
A million British thermal units for June delivery rose to $9.30 on Thursday, up 3.7% over the previous day and more than 25% over the month. During the past year, prices have tripled and are the highest since 2008, before cheap shale gas flooded the market.
Precious metals
The gold price is trading near $1,850 again in today’s morning trading, down 0.6% from yesterday. Platinum is down 0.4%, palladium is down 0.2%, and silver is down 0.5%. These are the major price declines of the precious metals this morning.
Gold
Gold futures were down 1.02% on Wednesday, May 25, retracing their gains of around 1.0% from Tuesday. As the US dollar strengthened and fears were raised about the Fed’s monetary policy, gold recently fell below $1,800 per ounce. The yellow metal extended its decline yesterday.
The COMEX gold price fell 0.13 percent Thursday to $1,848 per ounce. The recent decline came as bond yields were firm and the dollar index recovered,” said HDFC Securities senior commodities analyst Tapan Patel.
Agriculture
A record high was achieved by the Platts White Sugar Containers EU 45IC FAS Antwerp Premium for June shipment at $155/mt, compared to the London No. 5 futures contract for August, which showed higher domestic demand and lower supply. With Brazil’s new crop production beginning in June, people began looking more towards India and Brazil for their sugar needs, especially since the EU is no longer a factor.
Corn
On Thursday, corn futures continued to trade in the red. The July contract is down 12 cents, and the December contract is down 9 cents. This is 15 cents off the overnight low for wheat.
In the CBOT contract for July, the price rose quickly and came within 11.2 cents of the previous low. Spring wheat stocks are currently down 4, the CBOT is down 15, and KC is down 11. As the wheat bulls look towards Friday, the daily charts will look better if they got above the high hit yesterday.
