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.”

This week we’ll get key readings on inflation including the U.S. consumer price and producer price indexes, along with new figures on U.S. job openings and labor turnover, retail sales, consumer credit, and consumer sentiment. The consensus forecasts are for modest gains in core PPI (+0.1%) and CPI (+0.2%), which investors and the Fed will be watching closely. Overseas, we’ll also get Chinese inflation data, but European monetary policy and Brexit developments should remain in focus.

Last week’s U.S. economic reports mostly underwhelmed as the Institute for Supply Management’s reading on manufacturing PMI dropped into negative territory (49.1), the U.S. trade deficit was wider than expected (-$54 billion), and the jobs report for August missed expectations (nonfarm payrolls +130,000 vs. consensus forecast of +160-170k).

For U.S. scrap processors, it would be fair to say that the trend in primary and secondary commodity prices has not been entirely favorable this year.

The WSJ’s Daily Shot quotes Xeneta CEO Patrik Berglund as saying, “The chart shows the development of the short and long term market on Transpac Eastbound into LA ports.