Brent crude was hovering at 110 USD per barrel (USD/bbl) level on Wednesday. Apart from positive global sentiment and surprisingly good result of US durables, the bullish US Department of Energy (EIA) report bolstered the price of crude oil. According to the EIA, US crude stocks dropped by 2.213 million barrels last week (market expected 800 thousand built). US benchmark WTI posted modest losses as inventories in Cushing were virtually unchanged.
Interestingly, despite the fact that stocks in Cushing are the lowest since November 2010 and that Gaddafi’s regime in Libya is about to end, the spread between Brent and WTI remains at heightened levels above 25 USD/bbl.
Base Metals
Copper has been trading sideways after a drop in commodity prices in the beginning of this month. The red metal has been hovering at 8800 – 8900 USD per ton level ever since. Yesterday, the better than expected US durables data slightly supported the price of the metal. We think that copper price might rise in the rest of this week. Trading further ahead will undoubtedly be significantly influenced by the conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole (Friday).
Precious Metals
The most visible victim of the current better sentiment remains gold. The yellow metal is currently trading about 9 percent below the all-time (nominal) high of 1911 USD per troy ounce. Regarding gold futures market, (221 CZK, 3,27%) group decided to raise margin requirements to 9450 USD (contract consists of 100 troy ounces). As a result, the front month contract lost about 5.5 percent yesterday. Even though that a hike in silver margins was one of the reasons for a sell-off of silver earlier in May this year, we don’t expect such a scenario to materialize in the case of gold.