The Bloomberg Commodity Index was little changed in early trading this morning as retreating oil prices were offset by mostly firmer industrial and precious metal prices. In New York, NYMEX WTI crude oil futures were down nearly 4% to around $27 per barrel this morning despite media reports that Russia and Saudi Arabia are “very, very close” to a deal on production cuts.

The U.S. economic calendar slows down in this holiday-shortened trading week, so the initial unemployment claims numbers will again be the focus. The consensus forecast is for 5 million new unemployment claims for the week ending April 4th, although Briefing.com expects something closer to 6.5 million. Either way it’s not expected to be pretty.

For most U.S. businesses last week the key economic event of the week wasn’t the dismal jobs numbers but the opening of the new SBA loans under the Paycheck Promotion Program on Friday. ABC News reports, “Across the U.S. banking industry, officials scrambled overnight to stand up a massive new government-backed lending program to help small businesses ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic and many were unable to make it happen by the Friday deadline given that the Treasury Department released its guidelines for the loans late Thursday night.

Ferrous: ​Last week the American Iron and Steel Institute reported that for the week ending on March 28, 2020, “domestic raw steel production was 1,670,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 71.6 percent. Production was 1,913,000 net tons in the week ending March 28, 2019 while the capability utilization then was 82.2 percent.

The latest U.S. On-Highway Diesel Fuel Prices.