Primary Commodities Report for April 13th - 17th

By: Gabriella Acevedo, The Quinnipiac University Global Economics Research Team 

Commodities Index  

Source: Yahoo Finance and own calculations. Rates are in United States dollars per one (1) unit of goods. Brent Crude Oil is measured in barrels. Natural Gas is measured in MMBtu (Million British Thermal Units), Gold is per troy ounce, and for Nickel the price reflects price per share of (NIKL) ETF. They are all indexed to be 100 at the start of the period.    

 For the week of April 11^th – 17^th Brent Oil was the most volatile for the week. It started off increasing before having a steep drop that caused it to fall below the baseline. While it had a sharp increase towards the end of the week it dropped shortly after and continued to fall below, the baseline ended the week at –5.06%.  Nickel (Red) rose throughout the week with minor dips that it was able to swiftly recover from ending the week at 9.91% above the baseline. Natural Gas (Green) and Gold (Yellow) followed a similar trend for the week. Natural Gas (Green) started the week declining and continuted to do so until the mid-point of the week where it then rose steadily, ending the week at 0.98% above the baseline. Gold (Yellow) also started the week declining before having a jump that pushed it past the baseline where it continued to rise ended the week at 2.10% above the baseline.

Commodities Historical Trends  

Source: Yahoo Finance and own calculations. Rates are in United States dollars per one (1) unit of goods. Brent Crude Oil is measured in barrels. Natural Gas is measured in MMBtu (Million British Thermal Units), Gold is per troy ounce, and for Nickel the price reflects price per share of (NIKL) ETF.    

Brent Oil (Black) fell below the upper bound and continued to fall this week; it remained above the baseline with a price of $90.38/Barrel. Nickel (Red) surpassed the lower bound and baseline and continued to rise for the week ended at a price of $18.24/Share. Gold (Yellow) rose above the lower bound and continued to rise falling slightly below the baseline for this week at a price of $4857.80/Troy Oz. Natural Gas (Green) has remained steady for the past few month sticking in a zone in between the base line and the lower bound and continued to stick to this trend for this week at a price of $2.67/MMBtu