Global Courant
ISTANBUL
The positive trend in the commodity markets continued before the interest rate decisions of the leading central banks last week.
After the increases in the commodity market at the beginning of this month, an upward trend was observed last week.
Markets focused on the decisions of the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, which will announce their interest rate decisions this week.
Expectations that the Fed will probably not raise interest rates were one of the major reasons for the gains in the commodity markets.
News that the Chinese government is asking public banks to cut deposit rates and expectations that the People’s Bank of China may cut some lending rates this month also supported the uptrend.
markets
Precious metal prices, excluding palladium, rose last week.
The price of gold rose 0.7%, silver 2.8% and platinum 0.3%, while palladium fell 7.1% to its lowest level since May 2019.
Palladium’s price fell amid global oversupply concerns.
A fluctuating course was observed in base metals.
The week ended with a decrease of 1.2% in copper, 1.7% in lead, 3.6% in zinc, 2.5% in aluminum and 1.6% in nickel.
While the price of Brent oil decreased by 1.7 percent, the price of natural gas increased by 4.1 percent.
Despite supply concerns after Saudi Arabia announced its biggest production cut in recent years, ongoing global economic concerns played a major role in the decline in Brent oil prices.
Natural gas prices rose as demand from US electricity suppliers increased due to increased use of air conditioners.
Last week, an upward trend was also seen in agricultural commodities.
Wheat rose 1.8%, soybeans 2.6% and rice 7.5%, while corn fell 0.7%.
Cotton fell 0.1%, coffee rose 3.5% and sugar 1.5%.
Seeing its highest level since June 2016, cocoa finished the week with an increase of 4.9%.
Wheat prices soared after Ukraine announced that a large dam had been hit by Russian forces, causing a flood that threatened grain supply.
Expectations that Australia’s wheat and barley production will fall by a third next year, and growing concerns about production as heavy rains in China have damaged wheat, have also led to higher wheat prices.
Decreased demand expectations due to increased corn planting and falling oil prices in the USA pushed corn prices down.
With the decline in coffee exports from Vietnam in January-May, coffee supply problems arose and coffee prices skyrocketed.
With the onset of monsoon rains in India, production concerns led to an increase in sugar prices, while sugar cane planting was delayed.
This brought along sugar supply concerns.
Concern that monsoon conditions could harm production also caused cocoa prices to skyrocket.
*Written by Gökhan Ergocun
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