Commodities

Coffee futures for December 2018 delivery were trading around 120 cents per pound (2.2 pounds equals 1 kilogram) in the last week of October on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

When Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi failed to exit from his country’s embassy in Istanbul on October 2, 2018—after he entered it to complete required paperwork—the most powerful country in the Middle East was poorly prepared for the global repercussions that would eventually follow.

Gold prices continued to edge up in the second half of September, even as markets digested the news of the latest tit-for-tat trade tariffs between the United States and China.

In the United States, commercial crude-oil, gasoline and distillate-fuel inventories fell more than expected in the week ending August 24, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) weekly inventory report.

The looming trade war between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, just turned official with the US imposing 25-percent duties on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods from Friday, July 6.

In March 2018, US President Donald J. Trump announced across-the-board tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, with a 25-percent import tariff on steel and 10-percent on aluminum.

WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude-oil futures slipped after failing to breach the more than four-year highs of $66.66 per barrel set in January of this year.

It’s been a while since precious metals have witnessed a major rally. 2010 may have been the last year that prices of gold, silver and platinum surged in unison.

Crude-oil prices have spiked more than 22 percent in the last three months to their highest level in more than three years, with prices of light, sweet crude scaling $66 in January for the first time since December 2014

Crude-oil prices have spiked close to 40 percent since June this year, as one crisis after another has embroiled the Middle East over the last few months.