Commodities Are Strong in the Early Hours on December 20

After falling for three consecutive trading weeks, crude oil started this week on a mixed note and regained strength as the week progressed. On Wednesday, crude oil opened the day on a stronger note and traded with strength above the opening prices.

The market sentiment on crude oil was mixed last week and improved this week. On Tuesday, crude oil rose amid the release of the better-than-expected weekly crude oil inventory report. According to the American Petroleum Institute, crude oil inventories fell by 5.222 MMbbls (million barrels) last week. It’s better than the expected drawdown of 3.2 MMbbls. The North Sea pipeline outage and the weak dollar in the early hours are supporting crude oil prices. On the other hand, the market’s limits are due to reports about US shale oil production in January.

At 4:40 AM EST on December 20, the West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for February 2018 delivery were trading at $57.69 per barrel—a gain of 0.24%. The Brent crude oil futures for February 2018 delivery fell 0.13% to $63.72 per barrel. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) closed at $34.81 after rising 0.17% on December 19. The market is looking forward to the release of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s US crude oil inventory report at 10:30 AM EST today.

Copper rebounded last week and broke the two-week losing streak. Due to the improved sentiment, copper rose in the first two trading days this week and traded at seven-week high price levels in the early hours on Wednesday.

Gold (GLD) and silver (SLW) are strong in the early hours on Wednesday. The lower global risk appetite and weak US dollar are supporting gold prices in the early hours. The weak dollar supports the prices of dollar-denominated commodities like copper, gold, and silver. Platinum and palladium are strong in the early hours on December 20.