Gold
In Yesterday’s session, Spot Gold ended lower
by 0.4 percent to close at $1803.3 per ounce. Spot Gold hovered near the lowest
in the week as boost in the risk appetite amongst global investors dented the
appeal for the safe haven, Gold.
Global investors were alarmed following the
surge in the Delta variant COVID-19 infections. Bets on extension of lockdown
in many nations which might derail the economic recovery weighed on the market
sentiments.
However, the revival in the global equity
markets and bond returns in yesterday’s session after the sell off earlier in
the week shifted the investors away from Gold.
Also, soaring Oil prices and possibilities
that the inflation being transitory element added to the downside in Gold
prices. Investors will have a keen watch on the U.S. Federal
Reserve officials meeting in the coming week and the European Central Bank
meeting on Thursday.
Crude Oil
On Wednesday, WTI Crude prices rose over 4.2
percent to close at $70.3 per barrel despite the increase in the US Crude
inventories. Crude prices surged after the massive fall earlier in the week as
markets risk appetite improved.
As per reports from the Energy Information
Administration, US Crude inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels in the week
ending on 16th July’21. The gains for Crude were limited as US Crude
Inventories edged higher last week after eight consecutive weeks of
withdrawals.
Oil prices plunged over 7 percent in the
beginning of the week as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and
their allies, also known as OPEC+ agreed on increasing Crude supply by 400,000
barrels per day from August’21 to December’21.
Further pressuring Oil prices was the Delta
variant of COVID-19, which is significantly more contagious than earlier ones
and is now the dominant strain worldwide. It has been detected in about 100
countries around the world and patchy rollouts of inoculation programs in many
countries are undermining the battle against the virus, raising the prospect of
more lockdowns that would hit demand for oil products.
Base Metals
Industrial metals on the LME remained under
pressure in yesterday’s trading session following China’s announcement to
release another batch on industrial metals in an attempt to ease the soaring
Commodity prices. After the successful first round of China’s State Reserve
metal auction held in the first week of July’20, China's National Food and
Strategic Reserves Administration announced to sell 30,000 tonnes of copper,
90,000 tonnes of aluminium and 50,000 tonnes of zinc of their reserves in the
second sale scheduled on 29th July’21.
Lead prices found some support in yesterday’s
session after a major Lead smelter situated in Western Germany (Stolberg
smelter) halted operations following severe flooding. The unit has a production
capacity of 155,000 tonnes, according to its website.
As per data from the International Nickel
Study Group (INSG), the global Nickel market deficit rose to 21300 tonne in
May’21 from a 20400 tonne deficit reported in April’21.
Copper
On Wednesday, LME Copper ended marginally
higher by 0.12 percent to close at $9347 per tonne as the amount of the sale of
reserves was lower than expected.
As per data from the International Copper
Study Group (ICSG), the global refined Copper market deficit expanded to 75,000
tonnes deficit in April’21 after a 13,000-tonne deficit reported in March’21.