Morning Commodities: Gold, Oil and Gas updates

Morning commodities updates:

Gold. Gold prices are testing a 2 ½ week high, driven by a weaker U.S. Dollar and yesterday’s U.S. inflation report that showed a faster than expected rise in consumer prices.

At 1008 GMT, April Comex Gold futures are trading $1356.80, down $1.20 or -0.09%.

On Wednesday, the USA government reported that consumer prices rose more than expected in January as Americans paid more for gasoline, rental accommodation and healthcare. This was enough to fuel gold’s biggest one-day percentage gain since May 2017.

A recovery in broader risk sentiment was seen weighing on the U.S. Dollar, which had gained during the market turmoil earlier in the month. This helped make gold a more attractive investment.

Data on Thursday showed that the U.S. producer price index rose in line with expectations by 0.4% last month. Rising inflation would be a catalyst to push the Federal Reserve toward raising interest rates at a faster pace than currently expected.

Oil.  Crude oil prices rose on Friday, helped by a weak U.S. dollar and by hopes for further efforts to limit global oil output. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude March contract was up 43 cents or about 0.72% at $61.78 a barrel by 04:05 a.m. ET (08:05 GMT), the highest since February 8. Elsewhere, Brent oil for April delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London gained 55 cents or about 0.87% to $64.89 a barrel.

Gas. Natural gas markets have gone back and forth during the day on Thursday, ultimately settling on negativity. The market is reaching towards the $2.50 level underneath. The market is extraordinarily oversold too. Natural gas inventory draw was higher than expected

Sources: 

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/natural-gas-inventory-draw-was-higher-than-expected-1253906

https://www.investing.com/news/commodities-news/gold-prices-at-312-week-highs-as-us-dollar-tumbles-1258204

https://www.investing.com/news/commodities-news/crude-oil-prices-rise-on-renewed-optimism-1258403

https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/price-of-gold-fundamental-daily-forecast-steep-dollar-plunge-should-spike-gold-prices-475484?utm_medium=email&utm_source=analysis-newsletter&utm_campaign=daily&utm_content=Fundamental-index-0

https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/crude-oil-price-analysis-february-16-2018-475631?utm_medium=email&utm_source=analysis-newsletter&utm_campaign=daily&utm_content=Fundamental-index-2

https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/gold-price-forecast-february-16-2018-technical-analysis-475687?utm_medium=email&utm_source=analysis-newsletter&utm_campaign=daily&utm_content=Videos-index-4

https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/natural-gas-price-forecast-16-2018-technical-analysis-475690?utm_medium=email&utm_source=analysis-newsletter&utm_campaign=daily&utm_content=Videos-index-2