Natural Gas Prices Depreciate

Palladium Gains The Most Value

Gold prices inched higher on Friday amid the speculations over the upcoming key US data. Gold futures for June delivery settled at $1,204.60 per troy ounce on the Comex. Whereas, a day earlier, precious metal declined to $1,192.40, the level last seen on April 1. Since March 17 and its daily low at $1,140.60, futures prices appreciated for more than 5%. During the week, the metal inched $3.70, or 0.31%, following the fourth straight weekly gain. Moreover, markets expect the Federal Reserve to postpone rising interest rates, which, in fact, acts as a bullish signal for the yellow metal.

Silver lost 31.9 cents, or 1.91%, following a second consecutive weekly decline. Yet, on Friday Comex session, silver futures for May delivery closed at $16.38 per troy ounce, up 1.21%, or 20.6 cents. Currently, investors are looking to the Tuesday report on US retail sales and Friday’s reports on consumer sentiment and inflation data, seeking further indications of strengthening US economy.

Palladium and platinum was supported by Russian news stating, that new implementations will take place on export taxes. Respectively, Russia will implement a 5-6 % tax on export on all forms of platinum instead of just powder and ingots. Platinum climbed $15, at $1,166, whereas, palladium inched $13 to trade at $773/778.

Zinc Closed in Green Among Others

Copper for May delivery picked up 0.18%, or 0.5 cents, closing the Friday trade at $2.734 per pound. As a matter of fact, the red metal did not change significantly during the week. Since the Asian nation is the world’s largest copper consumer, which accounts for about 40% of world annual consumption, copper investors are looking forward to the Chinese gross domestic product report for the first quarter, as well as the industrial production data and the trade balance. Meanwhile, the Chinese CPI data release indicated that prices were steady in March at 1.4%, yet, beat the expected 1.3%. Producer prices are still in negative territory, with improvement to –4.6% from the previous –4.8%, since the commodity price weakness impacts production prices.

Zinc and lead continue to fluctuate around multi – month highs. Lead was $20 higher, trading at $1,982, with stocks falling 1,550 tonnes to 221,575 tonnes. Meanwhile, zinc returned back to the January 5 high, climbing $29 toward $2,206, with stock cut 475 tonnes to 509,450 tonnes.

Aluminum traded at $1,766.50, $4 higher on Friday. Stocks fell about 7,200 tonnes to 3,896,450 tonnes.

Tin was $5 higher, trading at $16,605 after stocks slipped 50 tonnes to 9,780 tonnes.

Natural Gas Prices Depreciate

Crude oil futures went higher on Friday amid the quantity of rigs drilling in US fall. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for May delivery inched 85 cents, or 1.67%, settling at $51.64 per barrel on Friday close. According to a research group Baker Hughes, the number od rigs in US fell by 42 during the week, down from 760, following the 18th consecutive week of cuts. The market is paying its attention to the shrinking rig amount, searching for any signs of glut reduction flowing into the market. Over the week, crude oil prices on Nymex jumped $2.50, or 5.09%, the third straight weekly gain, amid the lower production forecasts.

Brent prices for delivery in May appreciated $1.30, or 2.3% on ICE Futures Exchange in London, settling at $57.87 per barrel. On a weekly basis, Brent futures added $2.92, or 5.31%, amid the impact over the Iranian nuclear deal on global supplies. Market analysts estimated that a build– up in Iranian crude exports could take several months. Meanwhile, the WTI– Brent spread between the contracts stood at $6.23 per barrel by Friday close. Oil investors are also looking forward to receive the Chinese economic reports, such as the first quarter GDP data, industrial production and the Trade balance.

Natural gas prices declined 7.45% over the week, following the general depreciation momentum. Prices tumbled 11.08% on a monthly basis and 14.77% over the three– months period. Natural gas inventories declined 13.68% last month.

Agriculture Prices Generally Subdued

Soybean futures declined to a six– month low on the week end amid the optimism over the South American supplies and weak demand for US stock driving prices down. US soybeans for May delivery reached $9.4440 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the level last seen since October 21. Over the week, soybean futures for May contract lost 32.87 cents, or 3.34%, the fifth consecutive decline on a weekly basis. According to the US Department of Agriculture, domestic soybean stocks are expected to be lower at the end of the 2014-2015 season on August 31, down from 385 million to 370 billion bushels. Moreover, global soybean ending stocks were forecasted to total 89.6 million tons, more than the previous 89.5 million tons for the previous month amid the record crop in Brazil.

Corn for May delivery declined 1 cent, 0.26%, by the week end, closing at $3.7700 per bushel. Prices touched a level last seen since April 1, the $3.7420. For the week, corn May contract shed 7.13 cents, or 1.33%. According to the USDA, global wheat inventories are expected to total 197.2 million tons, compared to a March forecast of 197.71

Wheat prices declined 2.19% on a weekly basis, yet, the overall monthly change shows signs of improvement with 5.01% of appreciation. Wheat stock on the USDA Wasde inventories appreciated by 2.85% in half a year.

EXPLANATIONS

Commodities

• Gold - COMEX active contracted (USD/t o.z.)

• Silver - COMEX active contract (USD/t o.z.)

• Platinum - New York Mercantile Exchange active contract (USD/t o.z.)

• Palladium - New York Mercantile Exchange active contract (USD/t o.z.)

• Aluminum - Active contract of primary aluminum of minimum 99.2% purity at the LME (USD/MT)

• Copper - Active contact of electrolytic copper at the LME (USD/MT)

• Zinc - Active contract of zinc od minimum 99.995% purity at the LME (USD/MT)

• Nickel - Active contract of nickel of 99.8% purity at the LME (USD/MT)

• Crude oil - light, sweet crude oil active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (USD/bbl.)

• Brent oil - Brent oil active contract on the ICE Futures Europe (USD/bbl.)

• Natural Gas - natural gas active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (USD/MMBtu)

• Heating oil - heating oil active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (USD/gal.)

• Wheat - wheat active contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (cents/bu)

• Corn - corn active contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (cents/bu)

• Coffee - benchmark Arabica coffee active contract on the NYB-ICE Futures Exchange

• Soybeans - active contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (cents/bu)

Indices

• S&P GSCI Precious Metals Total Return Index - commodity group subindex composed of gold and silver; the index reflects return on underlying commodity futures price movement

• S&P GSCI Industrial Metals Total Return Index - commodity group subindex composed of futures contracts on aluminium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc

• S&P GSCI Energy Total Return Index - commodity group subindex composed of futures contracts on crude oil, Brent oil, RBOB gas, heating oil, gas oil and natural gas

• S&P GSCI Agriculture Total Return Index - commodity group subindex composed of futures contracts on wheat, red wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar, coffee and cocoa

Indicators

Long-term price forecasts - aggregated price forecasts based on predictions of 20 international banks forecasts

USDA Wasde Total Estimated Inventories (Today) - current level of inventories of wheat in 1000 MT, corn in 1000 MT, soybeans in million bushels and green coffee in 1000 bags