The major commodity indexes were down around 0.7% earlier today as mostly softer energy and base metal prices more than offset firmer gold and silver prices. In New York, NYMEX crude oil futures were down below $50 per barrel (-1.4%) earlier today with Bloomberg reporting “OPEC and its allies probably won’t go ahead with an emergency meeting, even as global supply piles up while the coronavirus wreaks havoc on demand.”
In London, LME 3-mo. copper and aluminum futures traded as low as $5,638/mt and $1,697.50/mt, respectively, before retracing some of those losses. Fastmarkets reports that LME 3-mo. lead prices “closed at its lowest level since May 2019 on Monday February 10, dipping below the key $1,800-per-tonne support level, while nickel futures struggled to breach resistance against thin trading volumes.” In foreign exchange trading the euro dipped to $1.092 and the dollar was buying 109.7 Japanese yen, while on Wall Street the Dow Industrials were up 0.2% in early afternoon trading.
