Copper Finishes Quarter 7 Percent Lower; Natural Gas Recovers From Earlier Loss

Copper prices rose on Thursday on receding fears about a trade war and increased demand for higher risk assets as stocks recovered some of their earlier losses in this holiday-shortened week. Nonetheless, copper finished the quarter down 7 percent on rising inventories.

May Comex High Grade Copper futures settled at $3.0255, up $0.0235 or +0.78%.

Copper was adversely affected this month when U.S. President Donald Trump moved to impose tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing threatened retaliation. However, fears of a trade war have eased of late on hopes that negotiations can bring a compromise.

Gold

Gold closed marginally lower on Thursday as the dollar inched higher against a basket of currencies. However, losses were likely limited by tensions over Russia and a potential trade war. Solid U.S. economic news and increased demand for higher risk assets also helped cap the market.

Moscow has threatened to take retaliatory action after the United States and other Western countries expelled

June Comex Gold futures settled at $1327.30, down $2.70 or -0.20%.

Crude Oil

U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international benchmark Brent crude oil closed higher on Thursday, supported by a strong rally in U.S. equities markets and as investors weighed a rise in U.S. crude inventories and production against the OPEC-led plan to cut output.

May WTI crude oil futures settled at $64.94, up $0.56 or +0.87%. June Brent crude oil futures finished the session at $69.34, up $0.58 or +0.84%.

In other news, U.S. energy companies this week cut oil rigs for the first time in three weeks. Drillers cut six oil rigs in the week to March 29, bringing the total count down to 798, General Electric Co.’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said commercial U.S. stocks rose by 1.6 million barrels in the last week to 429.95 million barrels, while output hit a record 10.43 million bpd.

Natural Gas

Natural gas futures bounced back from earlier losses to finish higher for the session on Thursday. The catalyst behind the price rise was a government report which showed supply fell a little less than expected.

May Natural Gas settled at $2.733, up 0.035 or +1.30%.

On Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 63 billion cubic feet for the week-ended March 23. Traders were looking for a draw of about 70 billion.