Major Commodities on Global Market

Gold price dropped below US$1,200 an ounce, as U.S economy illustrated a positive figure. Bullion was hit by Federal Reserve officials, including Chair Janet Yellen’s talk about higher rates this month. Brad Yates, head of trading for Elemetal, said, “If the data continues to be as good as it was or improves, we could see the FED move toward further hawkishness. That could hurt gold.” Bullion for immediate settlement lost 0.3% to US$1,197.70, the lowest since Jan.31. Spot silver slipped 5.8% this week. Palladium dropped 3.7% this week, while platinum slumped 6.3%, the most since November 2015.

Oil price traded US$49 a barrel, as Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid AlFalih expressed interest about high global inventories. Also, Iraq is planning to increase its output to 5mn barrels a day by the end of this year, according to Oil Minister Jabbar AlLuaibi. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, stated, “The market is having a hard time getting over that supplies are still pretty strong, even though commercial inventories fell. West Texas Intermediate crude for April settlement lost 11 cents to settle at US$48.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for May delivery slipped 7 cents and settled at US$51.74 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange.