Commodities were down across the spectrum on Monday, compared with Friday's rally amid Greenback's weakness. However, on May 9 the US currency rebounded substantially, as financial markets began speculating again about the upcoming meeting of the Federal Reserve in June.
While slightly softer US currency might have had little influence on other FX market components, it definitely provided a positive momentum to the majority of commodities.
Oil contracts were popular among investors on Thursday, as possible temporary production disruption in Canada and Libya raised prices these energy futures by about one percentage point.
Natural gas continued to greatly diverge from its counterparts in the commodity market. It posted a daily surge of 2.64% on May 4, while all others used to hover in a much less turbulent environment.
Natural gas, by being the most volatile commodity in our review, revived 2.15% on Tuesday after steep downward changes of more than 6% a day before.
Despite much weakened US currency, all major commodities have posted a significant retreat in prices over Monday, the second day of May. Natural gas was down the most by more than 6%, with contracts for delivery in June losing attractiveness in the wake of warmer US weather forecasts.
Precious metals and natural gas were all bid on the last trading day of April, as the rally was prompted by dampened US currency in the wake of disappointing fundamentals and generally risk-off market sentiment.
Inaction of US and Japanese central banks weighed on the Greenback yesterday, while the sell-off is continuing to take place at the moment.
Provided with somewhat weaker US Dollar and notwithstanding an advance in US oil inventories to the highest level ever, oil futures added around 3% on Wednesday.
Energy prices diverged on Tuesday, with oil adding about 3% on a daily basis and natural gas leading the loss side of the equation with a slide of 1.5%.
Anxious financial markets sent precious metals prices to the upside on Monday, just in the wake of the nearing April meeting of the Federal Reserve.
Colder US weather outlook lifted natural gas futures on April 22, with prices adding more than 3% over the whole trading day. On top of that, another support was created by oil's bullish momentum.
Oil prices bounced back on Thursday, thereby posting a 2-3% decline in day-to-day value. Major producers of black gold threatened to increase output, as Russia and Saudi Arabia are competing for dominance in terms of market share.
Crude prices continue rallying, with massive increases posted by both brands of oil depending on the exchange where they are traded. Futures soared almost equally by 4% on day-to-day basis, after inventory data for the US matched analysts' anticipations.
All commodities with no exception that are included in this daily review posted massive gains over this week's second working day. The rally exceeded one full percentage point for all components, with the leader being natural gas.
In the beginning of this week's commodity trading oil dips were touching the 6-7% mark, following a big failure to reach an agreement about freezing production at the talks in Doha, Qatar.
Oil futures were sent into a somewhat negative territory on Friday, just ahead of crucial output talks that were taking place in Doha over the weekend.
Corn was forced to remain the only component, among commodities included in this review, to add value on Thursday. Moreover, it became the best gainer for a second consecutive working day.
We have seen a big move in terms of corn prices on Wednesday, because they appreciated by 3.15% and were followed by soaring natural gas (1.60%) with quite a wide gap.
All commodities except the safe haven gold added more than 1.5% on Tuesday, with the gains led by all energy components.
Prices of both precious and energy commodities continued to rally during the first working day of this week, helped by broader risk-on sentiment and other influential factors.
Commodity prices held to gains on Friday of the previous week, as a flow of positive fundamental news was able to put most of them on a bullish track.
Futures for natural gas see an aggressive post-season rally, as yesterday they skyrocketed by 5.60% and outperformed all of its major peers.
A formidable 5% surge in oil prices was accelerated by unexpectedly falling US stockpiles, even though economists had estimated another increase in reserves prior to the release.