Commodity Blog

Crude oil rallied today on signs that US politicians are near an agreement about the issue of debt ceiling. They discuss a short-term raising of the borrowing limit. It is not an end to the current unpleasant situation in the United States, but at least it would allow more time for finding a real solution to the crisis. November futures for delivery of WTI crude oil jumped $1.31 (1.29 percent) to $102.92 per barrel as of 20:33 GMT on NYMEX today. Brent crude surged as much as $2.92 (2.68 percent) to $111.98 per barrel on ICE.

It looks like no sort of news can bring respite for gold. The precious metal was still falling despite the positive news. Some analysts speculated that an end of the budget crisis would mean that the Federal Reserve will be able to trim its monetary stimulus. Indeed, the minutes of the Fed meeting released yesterday showed that policy makers were considering stimulus reduction seriously. Such speculations were not helping the metal. December futures for delivery of gold sank $18.5 (1.42 percent) to $1,288.7 per troy ounce on COMEX today.

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