On Friday, commodity prices grew across the board. A long-awaited speech of Fed’s president Bernanke unveiled that further action to support the economy is not excluded, but Fed president didn’t give a concrete hint on specific new measures. However, risky assets reverted early losses and eventually posted solid gains. Apart from Bernanke’s speech, Brent crude was supported by news that Tropical Storm Irene was approaching the east coast of the USA (according to Reuters, about 1.29 million barrels per day of production capacity might have been affected by the storm). Nevertheless, all refineries in the region survived the storm with almost no harm and Brent is currently trading a touch above 111 USD per barrel (USD/bbl).
Regarding the latest CFTC Commitment of Traders report, the data unveiled that Money Manager’s bets on a drop in WTI
crude prices further increased.
Base Metals
The CFTC data released on Friday unveiled that speculators bet on average on a decrease in copper (COMEX) prices for the first time since October 2009. Nevertheless, a wave of optimism related to Fed’s Bernanke speech at Jackson Hole weighed on the US dollar on Friday and hence supported prices of commodities across the board. As a result, copper again closed above 9000 USD per ton level. Today, the LME is closed due to Summer Bank Holiday in the UK.
Precious Metals
Gold once again outperformed the rest of the commodities complex on Friday. Gold rallied more than 3 percent and closed above 1800 USD per troy ounce level.