Why did industrial metals prices rise despite stronger dollar, weaker risk appetite?
Most industrial metals rose today despite the stronger dollar against major rivals and the weaker risk appetite.
As fears about the Ukrainian crisis calm down a bit, pressure on industrial metals subsidize as well, as Russia is a major exporter of these metals.
Foe weeks now, markets were concerns about shortages of Russian supplies of commodities and industrial metals since the attack on Ukraine with these concerns still ongoing today.
Dollar
US dollar rose 0.5% as of 14:33 GMT to 98.3, with a session-high at 98.3, and a low at 97.6.
Dollar's gains put pressure on commodities and metals as their prices rise with the dollar and demand for them weakens.
Copper
Copper futures due in May rose 0.1% as of 14:29 GMT to $4.75 a pound.
Palladium
Palladium futures due in June rose 1.6% as of 14:35 GMT to $2,280 after a previous tumble of 6% yesterday.
Why did OPEC Plus quit using IEA data?
Bloomberg reported that OPEC Plus will stop using the International Energy Agency's official data to review the adherence of member countries to the targeted production quotas, and will use data from other independent sources.
We'll explain here the reason that prompted such a decision,. which was rather expected amid mounting differences between the two organizations following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
IEA data is one of the major sources of data used by OPEC Plus to asses production levels for members, and for assessing the market in general before taking policy decision.
However it looks like some members expressed concerns about the IEA's climate change agenda and its questionable political neutrality
The political side especially became clear recently as the IEA took the side of the west and called on OPEC Plus to increase output in order to avoid the damage caused by the decline in Russian supplies following western sanctions.
So far Saudi Arabia and UAE have refused these calls and called on the IEA to take a more neutral stance in such situations and focus on achieving balance in the oil market.
Other members also outright doubted the validity of the data released by the IEA, especially as the agency continues to campaign against investments in the oil sector.
Some also accused the IEA of changing its technical analyses to be consistent with its statement regardless of how accurate that might be.
The UAE in particular outright asked the IEA to be "more realistic" with its data and stop publishing "misleading" information.
Would Russia impede the western nuclear deal with Iran?
After the US decision to ban Russian oil import and amid calls for Europe to do the same in order to punish the Russian government for its invasion of Ukraine, questions are rising about the state of global supplies.
The International Energy Agency estimated a drop in supplies of 3 million barrels starting in April as Russian supplies decline.
The Nuclear Deal
In parallel, the US and allies are looking for alternative to fill that void, and naturally they started to look at close alternatives such as Canada and Venezuela, but their capacity to raise output is limited.
US officials indeed have met with Venezuelan officials to discuss ramping down US sanctions on Venezuela in order to bring its oil back to the US and global market in good capacity.
Another important outlet is Iran, thus we saw an increased focus on negotiations to wrap up the nuclear deal with Tehran and bring back Iranian oil into the market.
However diplomats hinted that Russia is playing a hand behind close doors in impeding the success of the negotiations.
Obviously, a return of Iranian oil would hurt Russia considerably as many importers would rather get the oil from Iran rather than Russia at this point
The US seems insistent this time on the success of negotiations with Iran, and it might even give up some concessions to make this happen, let's wait and see then.
