The Bloomberg Commodity Index finished the eighth up slightly, but with some important differences at the level of individual sub-funds. This was reported by the market strategist office of Mps Capital Services in a weekly comment on commodities. “The driver of the rise in the general index was the energy component (3.2%) with Brent growing by almost 3% and US natural gas by 3.5%. US inventories fell due to partial blocking of production still present in the Gulf of Mexico – explain the strategists -. Furthermore, the IEA and OPEC have published optimistic estimates on demand for the end of 2021 and 2022 with a return to pre-pandemic levels next year thanks to the vaccination campaign. the political and industrial tensions linked to the “expensive bills” in the old continent are high, with prices that this morning resumed the race to the top “.
Strong sales were instead recorded on industrial metals (-2.9%) where fears related to lower demand from the Chinese real estate sector weigh (the financial crisis of the real estate giant Evergrande Group and the risk of contagion weighs) and the continuation of cuts to production in the steel sector to reach the energy consumption targets set by China for 2021. Heavy week also on precious metals (-3.2%) which were affected by better than expected US macro data (retail sales), rise on rates and dollar appreciation.
Finally, Mps Capital Services also reported that the agricultural sector was positive (0.9%) thanks to the good increase in US wheat (3%) and corn (1.9%), with the latter benefiting from the strengthening of demand for ethanol in the USA (accounts for about 1/3 of local corn consumption).