Commodity Blog

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rallied today as several positive economic reports were released in the United States yesterday. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index climbed 13.7 percent in November from a year ago, suggesting that the US housing market is still doing relatively well. The Conference Board consumer confidence index jumped from 77.5 in December to 80.7 in January, exceeding analysts’ expectations. March futures for delivery of WTI crude oil surged $1.44 (1.50 percent) to $97.16 per barrel as of 3:08 GMT on NYMEX today.

Meanwhile, gold rose a little today, but remained relatively weak ahead of the Federal Reserve monetary policy decision. The Fed has started to discuss the policy yesterday and will announce its decision today. It is possible that the US central bank will reduce stimulus even more and the positive US data increases chances for such an event. This is not a good outlook for the precious metal. Futures for delivery of gold in April ticked up $2.2 (0.18 percent) to $1,252.7 per troy ounce on COMEX today after falling 0.6 percent to $1,248.9 per ounce yesterday.

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