International oil prices collapsed 7% on the 18th, the largest one-day drop since September. Bloomberg information analysis, mainly in some countries vaccination work stalled, for the economy and the recovery of global oil demand brought uncertainty. Gold prices also weakened, because the U.S. bond yield did not pay attention to the Federal Reserve dovish remarks for too long, briefly stopped rising after climbing to the highest level in more than a year. Most base metals also fell.
Bloomberg’s spot index of raw commodities fell 2.4%, the biggest drop since September.
West Texas crude futures for April delivery fell $4.60 to close at $60 a barrel on Thursday, while Brent crude futures for May delivery fell $4.72 to close at $63.28 a barrel.
West Texas Crude Oil futures have fallen for five consecutive trading days, the longest sustained decline in more than a year. The recent decline has given back the gains made by West Texas crude over the past two weeks. However, with the Time frame so far this year, oil prices are still up more than 20 percent.
Bloomberg pointed out that China’s reduced oil imports, coupled with the fact that U.S. Gulf Coast refineries still have not fully recovered from last month’s ice storm, have put short-term pressure on spot demand for oil. “Short-term supply and demand conditions have temporarily overshadowed a brighter outlook that will likely emerge in the third quarter of this year,” said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates.
In addition, lower oil prices may also be related to commodity traders cutting long positions, which usually triggers a rapid unwinding of fund positions when prices rise or fall by more than 3% in a single day.
Expectations that the U.S. economic recovery will outperform other countries pushed the dollar higher, thus hitting gold and base metal prices, including zinc, on Thursday. Gold ETF positions have been declining continuously since mid-February, the longest streak of declining days on record.
The spot price of gold was down 0.7 percent at $1,733.14 a tael at 2:36 p.m. New York time. Silver spot was also down; platinum was essentially flat. Palladium was up 7% at one point, the biggest gain since last May, and has risen about 12% in the past three days, mainly because Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest palladium producer, has cut its production target for the year after two mines went underwater.
Zinc prices fell 1.2% to settle at $2,792 per tonne. Copper prices also weakened slightly, while tin prices rose for the second day in a row.
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