Tanker freight fell 9.0 percent, the largest move in the tables. This morning’s reporting offers no clear single driver for the index fall, and it cuts against the spot market reporting in today’s oil shipping story, where fixture and insurance costs on the riskiest routes are spiking; the split is itself the story of a freight market fragmenting by route and risk (see today’s oil shipping costs story).
Gold miners rose 4.34 percent and silver miners rose 3.48 percent, the equity confirmation of the precious metals bid in today’s commodities edition. Gold settled above 4,200 dollars an ounce on the haven trade, and Hecla’s record silver quarter, in today’s mining edition, gave the silver names a company level reason to run.
Dry bulk freight fell 2.62 percent, down 15.4 percent on the week. No clear single driver appears in this morning’s reporting; the move extends a week long slide in bulk rates that sits oddly against the week’s mining financing decisions, which were all made on long term cost curves rather than spot freight.
WTI crude fell 1.99 percent to 96.02 dollars a barrel. Today’s reporting explains the direction: supply workarounds keep arriving, with Aramco offering extra spot cargoes to Europe in this morning’s watcher story and India cutting its diesel export tax, while demand destruction caps every war premium rally (see today’s Aramco and India diesel stories).
The US 10 year Treasury yield fell 10.1 basis points to 5.09 percent, and the 5 year fell 9.3 basis points to 4.90 percent. The long end led rally is covered in today’s rates edition: duration buyers treated post inflation levels as value, helped by Eurostat confirming euro area inflation at 3.8 percent with core easing to 2.4 percent, and by the Federal Reserve chair’s closing remarks in Bangkok.
Silver rose 1.91 percent to 57.92 dollars an ounce, extending the precious complex’s run even after a soft week, with the producers’ results in today’s mining edition supplying the fundamental echo.
The cross market read is a barbell. At one end, the haven and duration trades are bid together, gold up, miners up more, Treasury yields down 10 basis points, the dollar softer. At the other, the physical economy’s prices are easing, oil down, freight down hard, bulk down for a fifth straight week on the weekly measure. Markets are pricing safety as scarce and stuff as plentiful, and this morning’s reporting, from TSMC’s guidance raise to the Pilgangoora expansion, says the real economy is still spending through the split.