Commodities: commodity prices are riding high
For the first time since January, the price for Brent oil rose to over 65 dollars per barrel. The optimism about the normalization of the economic activity - and the demand - was emphasized last month by the interruption in supply in the state of Texas. Due to the extreme winter weather, important parts of the production (approx. 4.6 million barrels per day in Texas) and refinery had to down tools. It is a temporary problem, but the recovery of the production could take several weeks. At the same time, the OPEC+ meeting of 4 March is anticipated, as it may announce easing of the production limitations, possibly by 1.5 million barrels per day from April. In the meantime, the discipline within OPEC+ for adhering to the production limitations remained strong.
The price of gold continued its downward trend to below 1,800 dollars per ounce. Contrary to the previous months, the rise in bond rates in the past month was not compensated by a continuing rise in inflation expectations. This resulted in the real interest - and therefore the opportunity costs of holding gold - rising sharply in February.
Industrial metal prices reported hikes across the entire spectrum in February. The cost price rose by as much as approx. 20% for the month, thus reaching its highest level in 10 years. In addition to the structural increase in demand, due to Chinese strong economy and the global need in the electrification of economies, purchases by investors, investing in real tangible assets