Commodity wrap up: Oil, gold dip on strong dollar and lower Chinese demand

Prices of most commodities tumbled during the last week amid a sell-off in risky assets and a stronger US dollar. In the energy domain, the prices of Brent crude oil futures remained stable while WTI crude oil futures logged a weekly drop of 1.23%. Both crude oil benchmarks traded at over US$110/bbl on Friday. Difficulties in gaining unanimous approval from EU member states for Russian oil embargo further weighed on oil prices. Likewise, natural gas prices also dipped 2.30% in the last week.

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In addition to this, uranium prices tumbled by more than 7% last week amid uncertainty in the energy markets, heightening the volatility of the nuclear fuel.

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Talking about precious metals, both gold and silver logged a significant drop in their prices in the last week. Gold prices dipped 3.17% while silver dropped more than 6%, as bets of aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve sparked a rally in the dollar, which in turn, spooked investors away from the metal. 

The prices of base metals including copper, aluminium, and iron ore also dropped significantly in the last week due to lower demand in China where coronavirus-induced lockdowns sparked concerns about demand and growth.

Industrial metals, zinc and lead, also witnessed a fall in their prices last week. Furthermore, the prices of battery metal, lithium dropped by nearly 1.2% while nickel slipped more than 10% in the last week.

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

Data Source: Eikon Refinitiv

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

Natural Gas

US natural gas futures trimmed earlier gains and dropped nearly 2.30% last week. The futures traded around US$7.66 per million British thermal units on Friday as traders continued to monitor the outlook for US LNG exports amid tight domestic inventories.

Gold

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Gold prices dropped as much as 3.17% in the last week as the US dollar rallied and continued to sap demand for bullion. The US dollar hovered near its 20-year high seen last week in light of strong US inflation numbers bolstering bets for aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve. Also, a weakening global economic outlook also stoked safe-haven demand for the greenback.