Friday April 20 Review

 

BASE METALS:

Copper climb to a 1 week high in New York trading, on unexpected business confidence in Germany along with global inventories falling.

July copper rise 2.1% to $3.713 a pound.

 

CRUDE OIL

Crude finally reversed its 3 day losing streak as Germany's business confidence beat analysis expectations.

May crude oil jumped $1.61 to 103.88 a barrel on the Mercantile Exchange, its the May contract last day to trade today. June Brent oil also jumped on the data headlines to settle $1.16 higher to $119.16 a barrel on the London-based ICE exchange.

 

NATURAL GAS

Natural gas futures moved higher for the first time in four days on forecasts for cooler weather in the east.  May natural gas rose $0.017 to $1.924 per million British thermal units on the Mercantile Exchange.

 

OIL PRODUCTS

Gasoline stopped its decline on a weaker dollar and on speculation the Euro Zone and U.S.  economies may actually be strengthening.
May gasoline climbed $0.0265 to $3.1806 a gallon on the Mercantile Exchange.
May heating oil for delivery climbed $0.0271 cents to $3.1522 a gallon.

 

LIVESTOCK

Demand for U.S. beef continues while hogs fell on speculation demand is easing as supplies increase. June cattle contracts climb 0.2% to $1.116075 per pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. June Hog contract dropped 0.3% to 88.525 cents a pound on the Mercantile.

August Feeder-cattle climbed  0.4% to $1.5562 a pound on Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

 

PRECIOUS METALS

As the dollar lost ground gold futures rose for the second in a row. June gold contracts rose slightly below 0.3% to $1,645.80 a troy ounce. Gold settled 1.1% lower for the week.

May Silver slide lower by 0.3% to $31.755 a troy ounce.

 

GRAINS and OILSEEDS

For the second day in a row soybean rose on signs of smaller harvests in S. America that can leads to increased demand for supplies from the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter as corn declined.
July soybean contracts climb 0.4% to $14.2625 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.

July wheat contracts dropped on favorable weather and speculation a stronger yield,  dropping 0.3% to $6.2625 a bushel.
Corn moved lower 0.2% to $6.1075.