Although there was little news about fundamentals, almost all commodities in the commodity complex showed sharp price rises. Crude oil took the lead, rising by almost 6 per cent, while the base and precious metals and crops also rose, by 3-6 per cent. The rises are taken to be mainly due to hedging of short positions and should be seen in the light of recent weeks’ sharp falls in commodity prices. Even if the arrow has begun to veer up these past few days, one should be wary of concluding that

Oil inventories were in focus when prices up to the release of the data had risen to USD 117 a barrel for the US reference contract. The inventories announced at 16.35 (Danish time) were something of a surprise, showing two sharply conflicting movements of gasoline and crude oil. Crude oil inventories had risen by more than 9 million barrels, while consensus was for only 0.8 million. But gasoline stocks had been reduced by 6.2 million barrels. The big rise in crude oil stocks was chiefly due

Commodities regained lost ground when a dollar weakening, among other things, aroused buyer interest. However, crops were an exception although they bounced well into positive territory intra-day. For most of the day, the oil price was about USD 112 a barrel, but as it did not manage to break through the point, the price was sent up towards USD 113 a barrel and subsequently rose fast to USD 116. In the course of the day, there were unconfirmed rumours about fire at a refinery, and there were

*There is a substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options. Placing contingent orders such as “stop loss” or “stop limit” orders will not necessarily limit your losses to the intended amounts. since market conditions may make it impossible to execute such orders. Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In

Crop prices rose sharply over Monday, but fell back a little overnight. When the CBOT opened on Monday, the pace was measured, but as the afternoon progressed, crop prices across the board edged up. Anxiety that the record harvest in Australia may be in danger, and an inquiry on the part of Jordan (100,000 tonnes) helped to support the wheat market, thereby supporting the bullish sentiment at CBOT. However, it was the uneventful corn and soy bean markets that dominated the day and recorded

After closing in negative territory on Friday, commodities in general are rallying this morning. Oil : OPEC’s monthly report on supply and demand focused on the flagging demand in the US and Europe. Yet the estimate of demand growth was lowered only marginally for 2008, by 30,000 to 1 million b/d. The estimate for 2009 was unchanged. At the same time the organisation stressed that it expects an improvement in non-OPEC production. According to the report, there are prospects of stockpiling,

*There is a substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options. Placing contingent orders such as “stop loss” or “stop limit” orders will not necessarily limit your losses to the intended amounts. since market conditions may make it impossible to execute such orders. Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In

Thursday was a mixed day for commodities, but the trend was primarily declining. After a general rebound for commodities on Wednesday, focus was on Thursday once again on the declining growth. In addition, a stronger US dollar characterised the market. Copper: We take profit on our recommendation to sell copper. Yesterday’s increase from the point of support at USD 7,200 a tonne towards the resistance level at USD 7,600 a tonne and then back again makes us less certain about a further setback.