Primary Commodities Report for January 5th - 9th

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 at 100 at the start of the period.

One of the biggest movers for the week of January 5^th – January 9^th was Natural Gas (Green). It started the week declining and continued to do so until January 6th, where it began to increase and reached ~2.57% below the baseline. However, it declined once again to finish off the week at ~5.83% below the baseline. Nickle (Red) also showed large movement this week. It increased with a moderate decline on the 8^th. Nickle (Red) was able to recover from this decline and continued to increase, ending the week at 9.62% above the baseline. Brent Oil (Black) started the week increasing and had a minor drop before continuing to increase, ending the week at 4.26% above the baseline. Gold (Yellow) Followed a similar pattern with a smaller drop. Gold (Yellow) ended the week at 4% 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.

The center line is a rolling three-month average. The upper and lower boundaries are the average plus and average minus one standard deviation, respectively, for the same three-month period

Natural Gas (Green) declined for the week falling below the lower bound. It ended the week with a price of $3.16/MMBtu. Nickle (Red) remained above the upper bound and rose during the week ending the week at $18.22/share. Brent Oil (Black) broke past the lower bound and baseline, ending the week at $ 63.30/Barrel. Gold (Yellow) remains above the upper bound for the week ending with a price of $4449/Troy oz.

Additional Reading

Why Natural Gas Prices Are Slipping Despite Strong LNG Demand

The Yahoo finance article states that while there is a demand for liquefied natural gas, it is being disturbed by warmer temperatures resulting in less demand for heating. LNG bringing up prices depended heavily on weather trends. However, with weather trends now being unpredictable, Natural Gas prices are fluctuating and beginning to slip.