The Bloomberg Commodity Index was down around 0.5% in early trading this morning as weaker crude oil and industrial metal prices more than offset gains in precious metal prices. Reuters reports, “Oil prices fell on Monday, paring last week’s gains, on worries a global oil glut may persist amid slumping demand and U.S.-China trade tensions that could restrict an economic recovery even as coronavirus pandemic lockdowns start to ease.”
In New York, NYMEX crude oil futures were down around 8% early this morning while COMEX copper futures traded as low as $2.284/lb. as gold futures rose above $1,715 per troy ounce. The SHFE in China is closed for the holiday while in London most of the base metals were headed lower this morning, with LME 3-mo. copper and aluminum trading around $5,075/mt and $1,475/mt, respectively. As for equities. the major European exchanges started the week in negative territory this morning as the euro eased to $1.094 while the British pound was buying $1.242.
