The Bloomberg Commodity Index was up 0.5% in early trading this morning as firmer crude oil prices more than offset mostly lower base and precious metal prices. Reuters reports that “Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday after the new Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, confirmed expectations that there would be no radical change in his country’s oil policy.”
In New York, NYMEX crude oil futures traded as high as $57.82 per barrel this morning. Copper prices weren’t fairing as well this morning with COMEX copper futures down around $2.62 per pound while LME 3-mo. copper briefly dipped below $5,800 per metric ton. Aluminum prices bucked the trend in base metal trading in London this morning, with LME 3-mo. aluminum recently up around $1,800 per ton. In foreign exchange trading the dollar retraced recent gains with the euro buying $1.106 while the British pound rebounded to $1.235 this morning as investors shook off UK hard-Brexit and recession fears.
