Another week, another set of surprising commodity-price movements. While softs - particularly coffee - remain volatile (coffee and sugar reached highs, while cocoa and orange juice fell back), it was in the energy markets that most activity occurred. Brent and WTI crude continued a gentle slide, which has been a feature of the past few weeks while natural gas dropped almost 5% in a week and more than 10% in the past four weeks. The slide of RBOB gasoline slowed to just 0.75% on the week, but almost 10% on the month. Metals remain relatively static, with only tin and steel billets reaching double-digit growth over the previous four weeks. Aluminium and aluminium alloy fell off sharply (4.8% and 6.7% respectively) during the past week - resulting in an almost flat four-week period. Foods remain particularly volatile, with the price of grains fluctuating wildly due to supply constraints having a knock-on effect on meat. Both corn and wheat have risen more than 13% during the past four weeks, although the previous week saw the price of wheat fall by more than 3%. Frozen pork bellies and live cattle continue to increase in price as a result.

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