Commodities

Brent topped $108 this morning — $108.15 at last check, after opening at $108.36 and trading as high as $109.13. WTI sat near $102.64 . Both jumped more than 2% at Monday's open. See the day's movers . Two separate things did it. Keeping them apart matters, because they unwind on different clocks. 1. The bypass line is down Saudi Arabia shut its East–West crude pipeline — 1,200 km from Abqaiq across to Yanbu on the Red Sea — as a precaution after drone strikes on 10–11 September. Roughly 5 million barrels a day had been moving through it, and Al Jazeera cites Reuters data putting the closure at 4–5% of global supply . The reason it stings mor…

What happened Brent crude pushed to the edge of $100 on Wednesday — trading around $99.65 a barrel, up about 1.8% on the day and its highest in nearly seven weeks, as reported by Trading Economics. US benchmark WTI sat at $94.37, up ~1.4% and its highest since June 3 — a three-month peak. The single-day tick is modest; the real story is the grind. Crude is now up roughly 15% in a month and about 48% over the past year (Trading Economics), and it got there for one reason: a shooting war is now being fought on the tankers themselves . Why it moved This isn't a demand story or an OPEC story. It's a supply-fear story, and the fear is specific. Ov…

Copper hit an all-time high on the London Metal Exchange for the second session running . The three-month contract touched $14,617 a tonne on Tuesday and was quoted at $14,581, up about 0.5% , at 11:08 am Singapore time — a day after Monday's $14,533 peak took out January's $14,527.50 record. That's roughly +17% so far in 2026 and about +47% over 12 months . This isn't a demand boom. It's a tariff vacuum. The US Commerce Department was required to hand in its review of tariffs on refined copper imports by June 30 . More than two months later, no decision has been published. So traders keep shovelling metal into America to get ahead of a duty…

The US retail diesel average hit $5.85 a gallon this week — an all-time high, past the $5.81 record from June 2022. Regular petrol is averaging $4.15 , against under $3 before the war. Brent is around $95 , up roughly 45% year-on-year . This is a refining story, not a crude story Crude is up a lot. Diesel is up far more. The US diesel crack spread — the margin between crude in and diesel out — is above $100 a barrel , with an intraday peak above $106, and the ICE gasoil crack hit a record ~$79. That line normally trades in the teens to low twenties. Roughly five times normal. Three separate supply hits are stacked on top of each other: Hormuz…

Brent is trading around $96.11 a barrel on Friday, up about 0.6% on the day, roughly 9% on the week and about 21% on the month , per Trading Economics. WTI is at $91.98 , up 0.75% on the day and 48.7% over the past year . CNBC had Brent at $96.20 on Thursday after it briefly punched through $97 intraday. Two separate things are doing the work here, and they're worth keeping apart. One: the shooting is spreading to the Gulf states. Kuwait's armed forces said they were intercepting incoming Iranian missiles and drones this week — Iran is now hitting US allies around the Gulf, not just trading blows with the US directly. That's a different risk…

Brent crude is back over the $90 line. Reuters had it at $90.32 a barrel, up $2.22 (+2.52%) in Asian hours this morning, with WTI at $85.41 (+2.41%) . Brent settled at $88.29 on Friday, so this is a clean break back through a level it lost last week. What actually happened. US forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island, inside the Strait of Hormuz, on Sunday. CENTCOM's stated reason: the IRGC was preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the strait. It was the first American strike on Iran since late July. Iran hit back on Monday with ballistic missiles and drones at two US air bases in Jordan — Jordanian air defences…

Brent crude just slipped to the 89.70-90.35 range, down about 0.8-1%. The move came after the US widened Iran sanctions under the new "Operation Economic Outcast" label, but the package left major Chinese banks untouched. Why the price pulled back Markets had priced in a bigger supply squeeze from fresh Iran curbs. When the details showed no direct hit on Chinese buyers — the biggest takers of Iranian crude — the extra risk premium came off. WTI tracked lower too. The drop is modest, not a collapse. Who feels it first Lower fuel and feedstock costs help any business that burns a lot of energy — airlines, paints, chemicals, tyre makers…

Brent crude just ticked up about 1% to the 89.70-89.85 range on August 12, driven by Iran supply worries. For most investors that means one clear thing: higher energy prices are back on the table as an inflation and margin headwind. Why the move is happening The price lift comes from ongoing geopolitical supply concerns around Iran. When those tensions rise, traders add a risk premium to the barrel because they fear actual barrels might disappear from the market. No big surprise in the mechanism, but the effect lands downstream fast. Who feels it first Upstream producers (ONGC and similar) see better realisations when crude stays elevated. Oi…

What happened Silver was the loudest metal in the room on Friday. Spot silver jumped +4.19% to about $64.08 an ounce , as reported by Trading Economics — its highest since June, per Yahoo Finance. On the very same day, gold rose just +1.29% , to around $4,295 . So silver moved roughly three times as hard as gold in a single session. Zoom out and it's up about 10% in a month and 67% over the past year (Trading Economics). Why silver moved more than gold Both metals were riding the same trade: traders getting positioned before the US jobs report (Non-Farm Payrolls) due later today. A soft private-payrolls read earlier this week — ADP at just +4…

Oil's sharp drop takes some heat off inflation and gives a tailwind to anything that burns fuel or uses it in products. Why the price fell Tensions in the Middle East easing removes the fear premium that had been baked into crude. With less chance of supply shocks, traders sold futures and WTI slid more than 7% to the $83-84 range. Brent followed. That's the direct cause-and-effect: lower geopolitical risk equals lower oil price. Who feels it first Helps: Oil marketing companies (IOC, BPCL, HPCL) see better margins on fuel sales; airlines get lower jet fuel costs; paint, tyre and chemical makers pay less for feedstock; broader risk assets lik…

What happened Silver was quoted at $56.40 an ounce on 20 July — up 0.90% on the day, but down 13.29% over the past month , as reported by Trading Economics. On Friday 17 July it traded near $55.50 , its lowest level since late November 2025. Gold, over that exact same month, fell just 4.39% to $4,007.72 . Both metals fell during a shooting war. Silver fell three times as hard as gold. That gap is the whole story. Why it moved Silver does two jobs at once. Half of it is money — something you buy when you’re scared. The other half is a factory input, used in solar panels, electronics and medical devices. So when the market gets frightened about…

What happened Crude just made its sharpest move in weeks. Brent futures jumped roughly 5% on Tuesday to trade above $75.50 a barrel , with US benchmark WTI up a similar 5% to around $72 , as reported by NBC News and CNBC. Then it kept going: on Wednesday morning Brent rose as much as 3% more , with the September contract at $76.07 as of 04:00 GMT — the highest since June 23, per Al Jazeera. Two weeks ago oil had drifted all the way back to pre-war levels. That slide just reversed in about 36 hours. Why it moved Three things hit the market almost at once, and each one tightens expected supply. Attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. Three commercial…

OPEC+ just agreed to pump another 188,000 barrels per day from August. Seven core members — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — signed off in a virtual meeting on Sunday, per the group's official statement and Reuters. It's the third straight monthly hike , the same size as June's and July's. Why they're doing it The supply scare is fading. Oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint that carries roughly a fifth of the world's crude — are recovering after the February conflict spike, Reuters reports. Brent peaked above $120 back then; it closed near $72 on Friday . With the fear premium gone, the g…

Silver just had an ugly morning. On the MCX it crashed about ₹6,152, or roughly 2.6%, to around ₹2,28,158 a kilo at the open, while in global markets spot silver fell about 2% to below $64 an ounce . Gold slipped too, but far less — down about 0.9% (₹1,367) to roughly ₹1,46,751 per 10 grams on the MCX. The odd part: this is happening while war headlines are still everywhere. So why is the classic "fear" metal falling when fear is in the news? What happened Two forces hit silver at once, and they pulled in the same direction — down. The bigger one is the US Federal Reserve. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh used his first meeting to sound surp…

China just added two US rare earth miners to its export control list as payback for US curbs on Chinese firms. The headline sounds scary for supply chains, but the move looks mostly symbolic right now. The simple reason: Beijing is responding to Washington's push to cut reliance on Chinese rare earths used in magnets, chips, and defense gear. The two targeted companies, MP Materials and USA Rare Earth, have already shifted away from China-sourced inputs, so the direct hit on them is small. Second-order effects matter more. US tech, defense, and EV makers that still need these critical minerals could face tighter or pricier supply if tensions…

Oil is just bleeding out here with almost nothing new on the supply side to blame it on. WTI closed the session at $86.09 , down 1.85% , while Brent tagged $88.68 . The move lines up with fresh de-escalation chatter that took the usual risk premium out of the tape. No fresh disruption headlines, no surprise draws, just the market repricing the fact that the earlier tension bid was probably a bit rich. What’s interesting is how clean the fade has been. Traders had baked in some persistent geopolitical bid, and once the headlines cooled the contract simply gave it back. Volume wasn’t even that heavy on the downside, which suggests this is more…

Brent just gave back most of that spike and sits at $92.43 , down 0.72% after tagging near $94-95 earlier. The move feels like classic relief once the Iran supply chatter cooled. WTI is tracking lower around $89.50 . The street had clearly baked in a bigger disruption risk on the initial headlines, so the quick stabilization is forcing a fast repricing. What changed is simple: the flow concerns that drove the early bid are easing, so the premium is getting unwound. Not a full reversal, just the market realizing the worst-case scenario isn’t materializing right now. Key levels I’m watching Any sustained break under $92 could open a test of the…

Oil just ripped higher on fresh strikes in Lebanon, and the move feels sharper than the last round of Iran-Israel headlines. WTI jumped from the low $90s into the $93.76–$94.00 zone, a clean 3.5–3.8% spike. Brent tagged $96.29 for roughly the same percentage gain. That’s more than a $3 handle in a single session on what looks like a new supply-risk catalyst rather than just recycled tension. The street had already priced in a decent amount of Middle East noise. This Lebanon escalation landed on top of it, and the reaction shows the market is treating it as additive risk, not just background noise. What matters right now Traders are watching w…