Precious Metals: Palladium fell despite long-term optimism

Precious metals continued to be pressured by renewed concerns over the Euro Zone’s debt crisis ahead of the key Spain’s bond auction on Thursday that will define a future trend of the commodity group.

Gold tumbled amid the greenback’s strength against the Euro caused by escalated concerns about the Euro Zone’s growth perspectives. Weak physical demand from Asia also contributed to the decline of the yellow metal.

Silver was marginally lower, being pressured by softer global equities; however, upgraded world’s economic outlook and greater contributions to the IMF limited the downswing.

Platinum and Palladium declined despite fast recovery of the Japan’s car market and positive long-term outlook as the largest auto producers plan to commercialize fuel cell vehicles by 2015.


Industrial Metals: Aluminum bearish amid Euro Zone’s debt woes

Industry metals lost momentum lent by the global growth outlook improvement and slid along with weakening global equities and uncertainty over China’s demand.

Aluminum followed bearish trend provoking an increase in the number of short. However, spot demand started to improve as the US and Japan’s economies commenced to recover.

Copper was flat as risk-sentiment was dented by the Euro Zone’s debt woes. However, tightening supply and increasing buying of China’s stocks created some stimulus for the red metal.

Nickel was pressured by pessimistic news from the Euro Zone and deteriorating spot market participation. Despite current weakness, the metal may regain strength as Indonesia is set to ban unprocessed nickel exports to increase the metal’s price.

Zinc was unchanged at the LME on Wednesday as the metal continued to balance between weak demand and medium-term supply concerns.


Energy: Crude oil tumbled after EIA storage report

Energy commodities were exposed to the inventory buildup at the US warehouses and global demand worries as economic state of the Euro Zone remained uncertain.

Crude oil erased previous gains after the EIA reported about 3.9 million barrel increase in the US inventories.

Brent oil followed crude oil as faster than planned reversal of the Seaway pipeline in the US narrowed the spread between two commodities to record low of 12.99 US Dollars.

Heating oil tracked losses of crude and Brent oil despite slight fall in the US gasoline inventories.

Natural gas was flat ahead of the EIA storage report due in Thursday as the commodity found some support on dip buying after it hit fresh 10-year low in the previous sessions.


Agriculture: Sugar slid on prospects for more Indian exports

Rural commodities continued to fall as excellent weather conditions in the key planting regions escalated worries over surplus in the market.

Sugar was the top-loser after India reported it plans to allow additional one metric ton of the sweetener’s exports this year to ease oversupply in the domestic market.

Coffee rebounded after previous lows as concerns over record low Colombian crops provided stimulus for the commodity.

Wheat fell to three-year low as favorable weather forecasts in the US boosted harvest prospects. However, the tumble was cut by 20% lower Bulgarian wheat harvest because of adverse weather that damaged 30% of winter wheat crops.

Corn dropped ahead of the meeting of Argentine’s officials who will consider increasing corn export quotas and will discuss crops estimates for current marketing season.


EXPLANATIONS

Commodities

  • Gold - spot 995 fine gold

  • Silver - spot 999 fine silver

  • Platinum - spot platinum with minimum purity 99.95%

  • Palladium - spot palladium with minimum purity 99.95%

  • Aluminium - three months forward aluminum contract on the London Metal Exchange

  • Copper - three months forward copper contract on the London Metal Exchange

  • Zinc - three months forward zinc contract on the London Metal Exchange

  • Nickel- three months forward nickel contract on the London Metal Exchange

  • Crude oil - light, sweet crude oil active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange

  • Brent oil - Brent oil active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange

  • Natural Gas - natural gas active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange

  • Heating oil - heating oil active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange

  • Sugar - white sugar on the LIF-NYSE LIFFE London Exchange

  • Wheat - wheat active contract on the Chicago Board of Trade

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

  • Corn - corn active contract on the Chicago Board of Trade

Indices

  • Dow Jones-UBS Precious Metals Subindex Total Return - commodity group subindex composed of gold and silver; the index reflects return on underlying commodity futures price movement

  • Dow Jones-UBS Industry Metals Subindex Total Return - commodity group subindex composed of futures contracts on aluminium, copper, nickel and zinc; the index reflects return on fully collateralized futures positions

  • Dow Jones-UBS Energy Subindex Total Return - commodity group subindex composed of futures contracts on crude oil, heating oil, unleaded gasoline and natural gas; the index reflects return on fully collateralized futures positions

  • Dow Jones-UBS Agriculture Subindex Total Return - commodity group subindex composed of futures contracts on coffee, corn, cotton, soybeans, soybean oil, sugar and wheat; the index reflects return on fully collateralized futures positions

Chart

  • SMA (20) - Simple Moving Average of 20 periods

  • SMA (60) - Simple Moving Average of 60 periods

  • Correlation - a statistical measure of the linear relationship of two random variables. It is defined as the covariance divided by the standard deviation of two variables

Indicators

Daily Ranked Price Moves - daily price changes in an ascending order for positive changes and in a descending order for negative or mixed changes

Monthly Ranked Price Moves - monthly price changes in an ascending order for positive changes and in a descending order for negative or mixed changes