Materials Risk

Amid the 27% drop in oil prices over the past four months its worth remembering that the security situation across many oil producers has shown little sign of fundamentally improved. Since 2011 Libya...

The continued growth in US Oil production has been one of the key factors moderating global oil prices over the past few years, seemingly mirroring unplanned oil production outages from other large...

Talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union are due to restart today (26 September) hoping to reach a deal over Ukraine’s unpaid gas bill that could lead to a resumption of Russian gas...

Is now the time to hedge against an oil price rebound? The last time we asked this question was in mid-April 2013, shortly after Brent crude prices dropped below $98 per barrel. At the time prices had...

Hurricane season in the Atlantic reached its traditional peak yesterday (10th September). So far, four tropical storms have formed, with three becoming hurricanes but none so far have had any impact...

Rhodium prices are up 42% since the start of the year to $1315/oz. Looking across all commodities only Coffee has seen a sharper price increase (up 74%). In comparison prices of Platinum and Palladium...

In theory, water should never be lacking. Water covers approximately 71% of the earth’s surface; however, 97% of it is too salty for productive use. Of the 2.5% that is usable freshwater, 70% is...

Sugar prices have halved in value since mid-2011 as bumper harvests outpaced demand growth. Now sugar prices are currently trading near six-month lows, just below 16 cents per lb on the expectation...

The recent appreciation in the US Dollar has been a key factor behind the weakness in overall commodity prices over the past couple months.To recap looser monetary policy (one aspect of which could...

Brent crude prices tumbled below $106 per barrel today (Wednesday 30 July), the lowest level for almost four months. Despite geopolitical concerns continuing to mount up (Israel, Russia, Iraq and...

How’s this for a stream of counter cyclical indicators? First, this week the Metals and Minerals Investment Conference announced that they would be cancelling the event indefinitely due to...

The global benchmark whole milk powder (WMP) price has fallen almost 40% since February to $3,088 per tonne. WMP prices on New Zealand’s GlobalDairyTrade (the country is the biggest milk...

Cotton futures prices fell below 70 cents per lb on Wednesday, the lowest level since November 2012. High cotton prices at the start of the planting season (they peaked at 94.75 cents per lb in...

Last week in an effort to get on top of its surging budget deficit the Egyptian government decided to cut its $20 billion fuel subsidies, resulting in fuel prices rising by almost 80% overnight. For...

Brent crude prices fell below £109 per barrel on Tuesday erasing all gains seen since the militant group known as The Islamic State (previously known as ISIS) seized Mosul on 10th June.Fears...

One week ago a 5-month strike by Platinum miners was declared over with miners returning to work after accepting a wage deal. During that 5-month period platinum prices ended level at $1,457 per oz....