Commodity wrap-up for the week that was

Last week, the prices of both, WTI and Brent crude oil futures slipped to three-week lows as the members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) decided to release millions of barrels of crude oil from their strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) in order to cool down oil prices. The prices of both the benchmarks slipped atleast 0.70% in the last week.

Also Read: Crude oil surges to 14-year highs on delays in Iranian talks 

Contrary to this, natural gas prices surged as much as 9.22% while coal surged more than 10% in the last week after European Union countries signed a ban on Russian coal imports and pledged to start working on the Russian oil and gas embargo, putting additional pressure on energy markets.

Source: © Baloncici | Megapixl.com

Among precious metals, both gold and silver logged significant gains. The prices of both precious metals gained as the Federal Reserve's aggressive tightening plans countered inflation concerns intensified by the Ukraine war and mounting sanctions on Russia. The latest Fed minutes showed that one or more 50 basis point interest rate hikes could be warranted to combat surging inflation.

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Talking about base metals, copper logged a 1.06% weekly gain amid a tight market as investors weighed lower supplies from top producer Chile and supply disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. The latest COVID-19 outbreak in China also subdued the demand for the red metal. On the flip side, iron ore prices tumbled significantly by 4.94% in the last week due to lower demand in Chinese steelmaking industry amid an ongoing lockdown in China.

Industrial metal, platinum, also witnessed a drop last week while aluminium and zinc prices rose marginally. At the same time, palladium prices surged by ~8% as the London Platinum and Palladium Market suspended the Russia-based Gulidov Krasnoyarsk Non-Ferrous Metals Plant "Krastsvetmet" and the Prioksky Plant of Non-Ferrous Metals "PZCM" from its Good Deliveries Lists.

Among battery metals, prices of lithium remained stable while nickel gained more than 5% in the last week.

Against this backdrop, let's skim through a few commodities that were popular among traders in the past week.

Commodity Price Performance Data Source: Refinitiv Eikon

Here are a few significant commodities that recorded substantial volatility last week.

Coal

Coal prices surged more than 10% last week as investors weighed future supply concerns after European countries inked a fresh ban on coal imports from Russia and pledged to work on a further set of sanctions on Russian imports including crude oil, and natural gas and nuclear fuel.

Crude Oil

Source: Refinitiv Eikon

Both crude oil benchmarks recorded significant decline last week amid plans for a massive reserve release, a firm hawkish stance from the Federal Reserve and subdued demand from China, the world's largest importer.

Also Read: Crude oil slides from multi-year highs as Iran talks rev up