Prices take a tumble on payrolls

The prices of many commodities drifted lower over the course of the week. But the negative tone was set more firmly on Friday by the release of data showing strong growth in US non-farm payrolls and an uptick in average earnings. This gave a boost to the dollar and underpins our view that the Fed will hike rates four times this year. Next week is relatively quiet on the data front. China will publish its January trade numbers on Thursday, which will give an indication of commodities demand at the start of the year. But we are mindful that China’s data for the first two months of any year tends to suffer from distortions associated with the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday.