BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.7
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Natural gas was the only GSCI energy commodity to decrease in 2019, Trend reports citing the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Prompt-month natural gas futures sold on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 26 percent from $2.96 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on January 2 to $2.19/MMBtu on December 31—the largest percentage decline of all commodities in the GSCI in 2019, reads the EIA report.
EIA estimates that prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil and Brent crude oil ended the year 31 percent and 20 percent higher, respectively, than on January 2, 2019. WTI’s increase of 31 percent was the largest increase of all GSCI commodities in 2019.
“Other energy commodities such as RBOB (reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending—essentially the petroleum component of motor gasoline), heating oil, and gasoil rose by 28 percent, 19 percent, and 19 percent, respectively, in 2019,” reads the report.
Price changes for each commodity are weighted by their relative importance in the broader market, said the EIA.
“WTI and Brent crude oil prices accounted for 72 percent of the weighting in the S&P GSCI energy index and 45 percent of the total GSCI in 2019. Since the creation of the GSCI in 1991, WTI and Brent have been the GSCI’s highest and second-highest weighted commodities, respectively, so both the GSCI and the energy sub-index tend to follow major price movements of these crude oils.”
Prices of many nonenergy commodities tend to move in the same direction as energy commodities, according to the EIA.
“For instance, because consumers use more copper and more crude oil when the economy is expanding, copper prices and the Brent crude oil price typically move together. Conversely, precious metals such as gold and silver are typically seen as safe assets with values that increase with economic contractions. Gold and silver prices are positively correlated with each other but negatively correlated with commodities associated with economic expansion,” reads the report.
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