Commodity Blog

Worse-than-expected macroeconomic reports from the United States created demand for safe assets, benefiting gold. At the same time, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was falling on concerns that the USA will not be able to keep stable pace of economic growth. Brent crude managed to gain. Oil was also under pressure as talks about the Iranian nuclear program resumed.

US industrial output fell by 0.3 percent in January, while it was expected to increase 0.2 percent. The capacity utilization rate unexpectedly dropped from 78.9 percent in December to 78.5 percent in January. Not all data was bad, though, as import and export prices rose.

April futures for delivery of gold surged as much as $19.4 (1.49 percent) to $1,319.5 per troy ounce as of 18:43 GMT on COMEX today. March contract for WTI crude oil was down $0.09 (0.09 percent) to $100.26 per barrel on NYMEX. Price for April Brent crude gained $0.23 (0.21 percent) to $108.75 per barrel on ICE.

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