Insights
Commodities: events that moved it
Precious metals, energy and agricultural exposure. This page gathers the pieces in our Insights archive that touched commodities: what happened, what it meant for this kind of investment, and where to read the original reporting.
Market-history pieces are retrospectives, dated by the event. They are general information, not advice, and not a record of any RockLake position at the time.
Market history · 31
Bonds ·
Long yields climb to 2007 highs as gold rallies
A hawkish Fed chair, rising yields in the US, Europe and Japan, and a surge in gold marked August 2026.
Commodities ·
Oil jumps as US–Iran hostilities resume
Attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and US strikes ended a slide that had taken oil back to pre-war levels.
Commodities ·
Oil reaches $126, its highest since 2022
Brent touched $126.41 on 30 April, more than double where it began the year.
Commodities ·
The Iran war sends Brent above $113
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut, oil had risen about 50% since the war began.
Commodities ·
Copper passes $13,000 a tonne for the first time
After its best year since 2009, copper set a record in London on mine disruptions, tariff fears and expected demand from data centres.
Commodities ·
Silver reaches $50 for the first time in 45 years
A rush into hard assets, tight London stocks and years of supply deficit pushed silver to levels last seen in 1980.
Commodities ·
Gold's run through $3,000 and beyond
Central-bank buying, geopolitical risk and rate-cut expectations pushed gold to records.
Commodities ·
Israel strikes Iran and oil jumps
Crude rose sharply and shares fell as markets weighed the risk to Gulf supply.
Trade ·
Liberation Day: a tariff shock reprices global markets
Sweeping US tariff announcements triggered one of the sharpest sell-offs since 2020.
Commodities ·
Cocoa tops $12,000 a tonne
Poor harvests in West Africa sent cocoa to a record, and the price later fell back steeply.
Commodities ·
Copper passes $11,000 a tonne
A first record above $11,000 on fears of a coming shortage as electrification and data centres drew on supply.
Commodities ·
Lithium prices fall by more than four-fifths
A battery-metal boom ended in a glut as supply grew faster than electric-vehicle demand.
Infrastructure ·
Red Sea attacks send shipping the long way round
Attacks on merchant ships halved traffic through the Suez Canal and added days to journeys between Asia and Europe.
Geopolitics ·
Oil and gold rise after the Hamas attack on Israel
Oil jumped more than 4% on the first trading day, and gold reached $2,000 by the end of the month.
Energy ·
Nord Stream pipelines are damaged
Leaks on the Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea ended any hope of restoring supplies to Europe that winter.
Commodities ·
European gas prices reach a record
The Dutch benchmark rose above €300 per megawatt-hour as Europe scrambled to fill storage before winter.
Policy ·
The Inflation Reduction Act is signed
A decade of US tax credits and grants for clean energy, vehicles and manufacturing changed the investment case for power and infrastructure.
Inflation ·
US inflation reaches 9.1%, a 40-year high
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in the year to June 2022, the fastest since 1981.
Commodities ·
Nickel doubles in a day and the LME suspends trading
A short squeeze in a metal used in stainless steel and batteries pushed prices above $100,000 a tonne.
Commodities ·
Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggers a commodity shock
Energy, metals and grain prices surged as sanctions and supply disruption took hold.
Inflation ·
Inflation stops being "transitory"
Consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in about four decades and the Fed changed course.
Infrastructure ·
A container ship blocks the Suez Canal for six days
About 12% of world trade passes through the canal, and more than 350 vessels were left waiting.
Infrastructure ·
Winter Storm Uri: the Texas power grid fails
More than 4.5 million people lost power as generators and gas supplies froze.
Markets ·
Vaccine news sparks a great rotation
Positive trial results sent cyclical and value stocks surging and pandemic winners lower.
Commodities ·
Gold rises above $2,000 an ounce for the first time
Falling real yields, a weaker dollar and pandemic stimulus drove a record.
Commodities ·
Oil prices go negative
US crude futures settled below zero for the first time as storage ran out.
New issues ·
Saudi Aramco raises $25.6 billion in the world's biggest IPO
The oil giant's Riyadh listing priced at 32 riyals and briefly made it the most valuable company in the world.
Trade ·
The US–China tariff war begins
Tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports took effect, and China retaliated in kind.
Commodities ·
OPEC agrees its first output cut since 2008
A deal in Vienna helped lift oil out of its two-year slump.
Commodities ·
Oil falls below $30 and markets wobble
A glut of supply took crude to its lowest since 2003 and dragged equities and credit lower.
Markets ·
China's yuan devaluation and 'Black Monday'
A surprise currency move and a collapsing Chinese equity bubble unsettled global markets.
Explainers · 3
Inflation
Real returns: what your money buys, not what it says
Why a return only means something after inflation, and what that changes.
Commodities
Why commodity prices spike
Supply is slow to respond, so shocks to supply or fear can move prices sharply, then reverse.
Investor education
How to use our market-history archive
Browse by year, by series or by the asset class an event affected, and follow each source to the original.
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