Commodities Week: Oil and Copper Rise, Natural Gas Falls, Gold Unchanged

Crude oil rose 4% this past week, as the commodity took its cues from rebounding equity markets. A fairly uneventful economic calendar allowed for a bit of optimism, with some traders speculating that any potential economic slowdown had already been priced in. Peak-to-trough, the S&P 500 fell nearly 17%, while oil fell 26.3% using the May 20^th low and 18.4% using the more recent low put in this Tuesday.

Another disappointing ISM figure, this time measuring the service sector, was released on Tuesday. The Index fell from 55.4 to 53.8 in June, which was below the 55 analyst consensus. Though oil and equities attempted to rally in spite of the poor reading, they gave up much of their gains by the end of the session. Indeed, oil settled slightly to the downside. Not to be discouraged, bargain hunters reentered the markets on Wednesday, with a lack of news enabling them to carry markets higher uninterrupted. The positive momentum carried into Thursday’s session, aided by a drop in initial U.S. jobless claims which fell to 454,000 from 475,000 in the prior week. (more)