Home > Ceasefire Rolls Back Oil and Metal Prices in International Trade

The prices of gold and oil in the international trade pulled back to their normal price range after both the Hezbollah guerrillas and the Israel troops agreed to the suspension of hostilities in Middle East last Monday. The oil price per barrel on ICE Brent declined to as low as $1.81 to $73.82. Meanwhile, the New York Mercantile Exchange WTI slid 1.60 to $72.75 per barrel. Technical and international trade analysts stated that the decrease under the $73.50 per barrel of oil for WTI can lead to more deflation in the global price of oil. The unleaded gas of Nymex, on the other hand, dropped eight cents to $1.9805 per gallon.

The oil price was more moved by the issue that the supply from the biggest North American oil plant will continue despite the reconstruction of the said plant's pipeline. BP Amoco, the largest oil distributor, said that it will handle 50 percent of the supply that comes from Prudhoe Bay's western oil plant with the assumed output increase of 200,000 barrels of oil a day starting on the last days of August. ExxonMobil, a Texas-based oil producer and distributor, has imitated ConocoPhillips in announcing force majeure over shipments of crude oil coming from Alaska. Producers and consumers in the international trade stated that the oil distributors will now divert their attention to the plans of Iran in developing the nation's nuclear power.

The conflict between the Israel and the Hezbollah militia, which erupted on July 12th after Israeli soldiers were ambushed and kidnapped, came to a pause after the United Nations requested an end to the hostilities. However, the current political issue in Nigeria will still likely affect the international trade because of unsolved abduction cases of more than four foreign employees in the country's oil plants.

Meanwhile, after a month of increase in the value of gold due to the Middle East dispute, the global market's most sought-after metal abated to .8% to $627.20 per troy ounce. Distributors and consumers of the international trade said that the value of gold returned after the metal's cost slid down the average $630 range. Silver, on the other hand, closed to .8% to $11.97 per troy ounce as opposed to the depreciation in other important metals. Other metals like palladium and platinum declined to 1.6% and 1.7 % respectively. John Reade from the UBS financial services company said that more pressures to palladium will come sooner after its price dropped.

In Chile, the price of the copper soared up to 1.4 % to $7,675 per tonne after the rally at Escondida continued because of disagreements between the Escondida management and workers. The metal mine in question is considered as the biggest copper producer in international trade, providing almost eight percent of the global market's copper supply. Copper prices in the international trade were recently increasing because of the fears of reduction in output. The two parties weren't able to reach a solid decision after the current round of conferences. The striking workers announced that the wage talks with the company will continue until both manage to find an answer to the said conflict.