Commodities end the year on a high

Most commodity prices rose this week, in part owing to the release of strong Chinese activity data. Lingering optimism following the announcement of a US-China “Phase One” trade deal at the end of last week also supported prices. We expect investor sentiment in commodities markets to continue to improve next year as recent monetary easing feeds through to a pick-up in global economic growth. This should boost the price of oil and most base metals. In contrast, we think that a downturn in the Chinese construction sector will cause the prices of iron ore and steel to fall sharply. We will elaborate on our Key Calls for 2020 in forthcoming Updates. Meanwhile, we have published our company-wide big calls for 2020 on the “Key Themes” section of our website. The next Commodities Weekly Wrap will be published on Friday 3rd January. We wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.