Every week, the commodities overview allows you to review the news on the commodities markets in order to better understand variations in the prices of energy, metals and agricultural raw materials. On today’s menu, oil which remains tossed between geopolitical tensions and contrasting fundamentals, industrial metals which are struggling to take Beijing’s announcements literally and cereals which are diverging in Chicago.
Energy : Volatility has gone up a notch, even two, on oil prices, which are particularly sensitive to growing tensions in the Middle East. Operators fear possible Israeli reprisals against Iran. The United States is working to ensure that Iran’s oil infrastructure and nuclear program are not targeted, fearing that this could push Iran to target oil installations in the Gulf in return. At the same time, supply disruptions linked to Hurricane Milton helped support purchasing initiatives. In terms of prices, the price of crude oil increased last week, Brent and WTI are trading at 77.50 (after reaching a weekly peak at 81 USD) and 73.50 USD respectively. However, as stated in this section on several occasions, the oil market is sufficiently supplied despite OPEC+ policy. It is in this context that OPEC has once again lowered its forecast for global oil demand. This is the third downward revision, which could put a damper on prices this week.
Metals : It’s difficult to know where to turn within the industrial metals compartment, which vibrates to the rhythm of the announcements coming from Beijing. It is clear that the market remains hungry. Summary of the races, copper lost ground this week on the LME, to 9723 USD per metric ton (cash price). Same dynamic for nickel (17,541 USD), aluminum (2,586 USD) and zinc (3,086 USD). As for precious metals, gold must contend with a sharp rise in bond yields, which limits its upside potential. The gold metal is trading around 2650 USD.
Agricultural products : Wheat and corn prices diverged last week in Chicago. Wheat gained height to 602 cents (contracts expiring December 2024) while corn lost ground to 418 cents. Still in the soft commodities compartment, volatility remains high on the price of cocoa, which jumped by almost 10% this week, after dropping almost 20% last week.
