Primary Commodities Report for July 15 – 19
By: Gabriel Kukulka, 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.
During the week of July 15th to July 19th, all four tracked commodities experienced a decrease in prices. Natural Gas (green) saw the largest decline, dropping by 8.6% by the week’s end. On July 17th, Natural Gas prices were down over 10%, highlighting a particularly volatile week for this commodity. Nickel (red) experienced the second largest decrease, with prices falling by 5.1%. Brent Oil (black) remained stable for most of the week, but a decline over the final two days resulted in a 2.8% decrease. Gold (yellow) experienced the smallest decrease, with prices falling by just 0.8%.
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.
With every tracked commodity seeing a downward trend in prices this week, several long-term trends are now worth noting. Brent Oil prices have dipped below their three-month rolling average after a slight decrease. Despite being on an upward trajectory for over a month, Gold prices fell approximately $50 per ounce, marking a notable downturn. Natural Gas prices continued their decline, extending a trend that started in mid-July. Nickel prices, which had been below their three-month rolling average for a few weeks, have now hit a new three-month low.
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