Primary Commodities Report for February 26th – March 1st
By: Apoorva Kuppa, The Quinnipiac University Economics Research Team
Commodities Index
Source: Yahoo Finance and own calculations. Rates are in United States dollars per one (1) unit of goods. Brent Crude Oil and Natural Gas are measured in barrels, Gold is per ounce, and the ETF is per share. They are all indexed to be at 100 at the start of the period.
For the week of February 26th to March 1st, the market saw little fluctuation in the prices of Brent Crude Oil, Gold, and Nickel. By the week's end, the price of Nickel (blue) experienced a slight decline of only 0.3%. Gold (red) remained stable for most of the week, then rose by 2.36% on Friday. Conversely, the price of Brent Crude Oil (brown) saw a 2.36% increase early on Tuesday, maintaining that level throughout the week, in contrast to Gold's movement. Notably, as observed in recent weeks, Natural Gas (green) displayed the highest volatility, spiking mid-week and concluding with a significant 14.47% increase.
Commodities Historical Trends
Source: Yahoo Finance and own calculations. Rates are in United States dollars per one (1) unit of goods. Brent Crude Oil and Natural Gas are measured in barrels, Gold is per ounce, and the ETF is per share. The center line is a rolling three-month average. The upper and lower boundaries are the average plus and average minus one standard deviation, respectively, for the same three-month period.
Over the past three months, natural gas and nickel prices have been maintaining their downward trajectories. In previous weeks, they were sitting lower than one standard deviation, but now both are fluctuating around the lower bound. The price of Brent Crude Oil has experienced fluctuations in the past three months, and we will be watching to see if its price will continue to increase, as it hovers higher than one standard deviation. During the same period, the price of gold has consistently oscillated between the lower and upper bounds. However, we now observe an unusual spike in price that surpasses its upper bound.
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