Commodities

The commodity runs its fourth straight profitable week, having set two-month highs, but today its consolidates

Copper is one of the most ubiquitous, versatile and abundant metals. The red metal, as it's known, is corrosion-resistant, a good conductor of both heat and electricity, and can be molded into any number of shapes, sizes and thicknesses. As a result, people use copper in coins, jewelry, pipes, electric wiring, and musical instruments, among other things. Copper's use by humans dates back about 10,000 years. When combined with tin,…

Weekly Chart Oil prices rose off of the supply disruptions in Kazakhstan and Libya, effectively ignoring any demand scares from rising Omicron infections. The interruptions are due to protests in Kazakhstan affecting transport channels and pipeline maintenance in Libya. The weekly chart below shows that USOil has charted a higher trough, and, if it can push above 85 (aqua horizontal), will chart a higher peak. If this happens, USOil will…

The charts below show an interesting relationship between gold and bonds. The top chart is XAUUSD, the middle chart is IEF - iShares 7-10yr Bond ETF, and the bottom chart is the US 10 Yr. Treasury yield. The red trendline shows the period between the third quarter of 2018 to the middle of 2020. During this period, gold and bond prices both appreciated, whilst yields declined. The orange trendline represents…

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies did not offer any surprises yesterday, as they stack to their output plan

The precious metal plunged at the start of the year and registered its biggest daily loss since November, due to the Dollar’s strength and the rise in US treasury yields

Gold (chart A) has effectively moved sideways on an absolute basis since July 2020 (area between blue verticals). Of interest, this has tracked a similar trajectory for FXCM's USDOLLAR basket (Chart B). As such, and with no surprise, the relative strength ratio (Chart C) between the two reflects neutrality in performance (USDOLLAR has slightly outperformed XAUUSD, as per the positively sloped red dashed line in chart C). The green dashed…

The final week of the year starts on the back foot, as fears over the omicron variant and a recent string of flight cancellations weigh on the commodity

Oil prices are showing signs of life following a larger drawdown in US Inventories than forecast. Crude stocks were down by 4.7m barrels, larger than the 2.4m expected. Oil, in general, is also benefitting from the switch by European utilities to heating oil from natural gas to contain costs. The market is also been buoyed by a study out of South Africa that suggested a lower risk of serious illness…

The commodity started the week on the back foot and today it consolidates, following the monthly reports from OPEC and IEA

The chart below on the left is gold's daily time frame. Price is moving into the area of weakness, between the lower blue and lower red bands. The daily stochastic has dropped below 20 (blue rectangle). As long as the stochastic maintains these levels, the precious metal is likely to be under pressure. In this regard the heikin ashi candle, which helps determine trend, has turned red over the last…