The Bloomberg Commodity Index was down nearly 1% today as weaker crude oil and industrial metal prices more than offset firmer gold and precious metal prices. In New York, NYMEX crude oil futures were down 1.9% to $56.75 per barrel in late day trading while COMEX copper futures dipped below $2.62 per pound.
"U.S. crude oil output from seven major shale formations is expected to rise about 49,000 barrels per day in December to a record 9.13 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a monthly forecast on Monday,” Reuters reports. Earlier in the day, nickel prices at the Shanghai Futures Exchange settled 1.7% lower and in London, Macquarie reports that “Stocks for both LME nickel and zinc have dwindled to post-GFC lows in 2019.” In foreign exchange trading the British pound advanced to $1.295 today while the euro was recently trading around $1.107. On Wall Street, the Dow Industrials gained 0.11% on the day to finish at 28,036.22.
