A quiet week for commodities

Commodity markets took something of a breather this week after last week’s sharp moves. Fears of a trade war between the US and China have receded a little, which helped to stabilise prices. The launch of a new crude contract in China stole the headlines in the energy market, whilst China reported strong imports of industrial metals at the start of the year. Turning to next week, we expect both the “official” and Caixin manufacturing PMIs (released on Saturday and Monday respectively) to have risen this month, which could give support to the prices of industrial metals early in the week. Meanwhile, the US employment report, due out on Friday, will probably show another significant gain in non-farm payrolls in March. This could raise expectations of US interest rates and weigh on commodity prices, especially gold.