A strong rebound can be seen on the oil market. During the whole week the price of a barrel of Brent oil increased from 91 USD to 95 USD. Uncertainty about future supply of the “black gold” was caused by continuing turmoil in Nigeria, one of the biggest producers of oil. Also, the United Stated has to close one refinery due to low temperatures in the north of the country. Widely discussed was Hugo Chavez’s, Venezuela’s president, threats to cut the supply of oil to the U.S in revenge for the U.S freezing the country’s bank accounts. The whole history started when Venezuela nationalized oil fields, which supposedly belonged to Exxon Mobil, the American energy giant. Prices of oil also reacted positively to better than expected GDP growth of the Japanese economy, which can prove increasing demand from Asian economies.

Recently, price and popularity records are held by platinum. We already know that the disturbances in electricity supply will last until July. What certainly caused prices of platinum to increase was speculative capital, which made the platinum market brake the psychological level of 2,000 USD per troy ounce. Last week, the market reached a new all-time high at 2,081 USD per troy ounce. Further moves of the platinum market are a mystery. After such strong increases, a correction is expected. More to that, expectations to the decrease in production vary a lot from 100K to 500K for the year.

Metals were in retreat due to a better situation on the stock markets. Investors realized their profits causing prices of gold and silver to decline. A weakening dollar did not help, even though metals are negatively correlated to the American currency. Also, it seems that higher prices are causing demand to decline, which is pictured by India example where imports in January decreased by 7% compared to last year. Prices of gold dropped from 925 USD to 900 USD per troy ounce while silver decreased from 17.44 USD to 16.90 USD per troy ounce.

Adam Narczewski