The gold price keeps its position below the psychological level of 1,300 USD per ounce, where it retreated at the end of last week. The decline came after the optimistic US economic data reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve may increase more than projected their interest rates.

At the end of the Friday session the value of gold futures with June delivery fell with 0.04% to 1,294.30 USD per ounce. Thereby the commodity expanded its weekly decline to 3.03%, reporting its second consecutive week of decline in price.

During the Asian trading on Monday, the gold slightly grew its price to 1,295.90 USD per ounce.

On Friday, the US Commerce Department reported that the consumer spending rose with 0.3% in February, exceeding slightly the revised growth of 0.2% in January. A separate report showed that the index of consumer confidence reduced to 80 points in March from 81.6 points a month earlier. A Thursday data showed that the applications for unemployment benefits in USA fell to the lowest level since late November 2013. The economic growth in USA in Q4 2013 was revised upwards again.

The positive data reinforced the hopes that the weakness in economic activity this year was temporary.

Gold was under pressure in the last sessions amid the growing expectations that Fed will raise the interest rates sooner than expected. The President of the US Central bank Janet Yellen said that the institution may start raising interest rates in the next six months if the optimistic plans for the economic development are confirmed.

Meanwhile, silver with May delivery rose with 0.42% on Friday, closing the week at a level of 19.79 USD per ounce.

The price of the WTI crude oil futures continued to retain their positions above 100 USD per barrel since reaching a three-week high on Friday. The in creased demand for oil was driven by the optimistic US data, which highlighted the positive development of the economy after the failures caused by the bad weather conditions at the beginning of the year.

The WTI crude oil futures with May delivery closed the last week session with a daily growth of 0.39% to 101.67 USD per barrel. Through the past week the raw material price rose with 2.14%.

On Friday, the US Commerce Department reported that the consumer spending rose with 0.3% in February, exceeding slightly the revised growth of 0.2% in January. A separate report showed that the index of consumer confidence has decreased to 80 points in March from 81.6 points a month earlier. The market forecasts were for a level of 80.5 points.

Thursday data again showed that the initial applications on unemployment benefits in USA fell to the lowest level since late November 2013. The economic growth in USA in the Q4 2013 was revised upwards again.

The bullish market sentiment rose further after the Chinese government declared its willingness to do more to support the economy. On Friday, the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang said that Beijing will pursue a policy of opposition to economic instability.

The latest data of the US Trade Futures , issued by Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed that the hedge funds reduced the bullish trades on crude oil contracts in the week ended March 25th. The net trades reached 293,403 contracts compared with 302,320 in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the London’s Brent crude oil with May delivery rose to 108.07 USD per barrel on Friday, considering the daily growth of 0.22%. The cost of raw material futures rose with 1.15% for the week.

The crude oil futures continued to trade close to the psychological barrier of 100 USD per barrel amid the tensions in Eastern Europe. The conflict between Kiev and Moscow has stimulated the concerns about possible supply disruption from Russia. The traded in USA WTI crude oil rose with 0.57% last week, supported by the current political disorder.

On Friday, the price of the raw materials rose to a session peak of 100.25 USD per barrel, which is the highest level since March 11th, but ultimately ended the week at 99.47 USD per barrel. At the beginning of the week, the light crude oil decreased its price with 0.35% to 99.11 USD per barrel. The investors continue to monitor the events in Ukraine, where the tension over the future moves of the Crimean region still weighs on the market confidence.

The political tensions between the West and Russia after the annexation of Crimea escalated after USA imposed tougher sanctions on Moscow. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve expected reduce of the monthly bond purchases with another 10 billion USD to 55 billion USD. The Fed Chairman Janet Yellen of the institution said that the central bank may start raising the interest rates in the next six months if the optimistic plans for economic development continue.

Meanwhile the latest data from the US Trade Futures showed that the hedge funds have reduced their bullish trades on crude oil contracts in the week ended March 18th. The net volume of trades reached 302,320 contracts compared with 328,095 in the previous week.

The London Brent crude oil with May delivery grew with 0.44% on Friday, closing the week at 106.92 USD per barrel. Despite the increase in WTI oil, the Brent fell with 1.19% for the week. In this way the spread between European and American crude oil reached 7.46 USD per barrel at the end of trading on Friday.

The gold price rose, supported by the speculation that the trend become attractive for purchasing and physical demand of the precious metal. The gold prices reached its lowest levels and a lot of investors started treating the moment perfect for investments. The gold with immediate delivery rose with 1.1% to 1,335.03 USD per ounce by mid-session of yesterday. The precious metal is about to report a weekly decline of 3.8%, which will be the strongest one till the end of January 31st, and the greatest decrease in price from September 13th, 2013.

The gold price grew even after the Federal Reserve said that the interest rates in USA might be increased, and Goldman Sachs announced their forecast for further fall in the price of the metal. The European Union is considering the sanctions against the Russia Federation, following the Crimean crisis. The news about the sanctions can continue to grew the price of gold, as the investors will return to look for “money heavens”.

Meanwhile the Wall Street indexes returned on growth during the Thursday session.

The price of gold fell to a three-week bottom on Thursday after the Federal Reserve changed its methodology for determining of the future monetary policy of USA. The contracts of gold with delivery in April dropped with 0.73% to 1,331.50 USD per ounce. Earlier during the trade was reached a level of 1,330.90 USD per ounce, which was the lowest since February 28th.

Meanwhile, the other major precious metal - silver, also lost ground against the decision of the US central bank. The asset contracts with delivery in April dropped with 1.06% to 20.605 USD per ounce.

The market was led during the recent sessions by the news related to the last meeting of the Fed. The US central bank will monitor a wide range of data to determine when to raise interest rates. The institution removed the target unemployment rate of 6.5% as an indicator for interest rates growth. Another important focus of the meeting was the expected further declines in monthly incentives that were decreased to 55 billion USD.

The light crude oil imports increased by almost 2% yesterday, as the traders and analysts give appreciation to the news of the extension of the Keystone pipeline in USA. The April futures rose with 1.5% to 99.59 USD per barrel yesterday. Meanwhile, the traders expect today’s report on the weekly US crude oil stocks and the Federal Reserve statement of the monetary policy to provide guidance to the raw material price movement.

The markets also continue to monitor the situation in Ukraine after on Sunday Crimea voted to join Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the territorial ambitions of Russia to Ukraine are just limited to Crimea. His statement appease some of the concerns about global supplies of crude oil, but violence in the region again resume.

Meanwhile on Friday USA sell part of its strategic reserves of crude oil to five oil companies, which is the first test sale since 1990. According officials Royal Dutch Shell and Phillips 66 have purchased the majority of the proposed amount. Of totally 5 million barrels offered for sale, Phillips 66 has successfully acquired 2.04 million barrels and Shell bought 1.22 million barrels. The other buyers were Marathon Petroleum, Exxon Mobile and Mercuria Energy Trading.

The US government should received 500 million USD, according to the price of the tender offers. The auction price of a crude oil barrel ranged from 95.40 USD to about 103 USD.

The price of WTI crude oil fell heavily last week meeting the negative signal for the Chinese economy. The contracts on crude oil with April delivery fell to 98.99 USD per barrel at the end of the last trading session, down from 3.37% for the week.

After the annual meeting of Chinese leaders on Thursday the Prime Minister Li Keqiang said that he expects a series of failures in the local private sector. The makers in Beijing will still take steps to ensure that such events will not pose a threat to the broader financial system. The Prime Minister came after the second largest economy in the world reported the first-ever corporate bankruptcy last week. On March 4th, the manufacturer of the solar panels Chaori Solar warned it will unable to pay its commitments under corporate debt worth 14.6 million USD.

The Chinese exports also fell by 18.1% yoy in February after rising 10.6% a month earlier. The imports rose 10.1% compared to 10% reported a month earlier. Moreover, the country’s consumer inflation reached 2% in February annually. The previous month was reported at 2.5%, while the market expectations for the second month were level of 2.2%.

Meanwhile the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its forecast for demand of crude oil for the second consecutive month. The global demand is expected to increase by 1.14 million barrels per day, reaching a total of 91.14 million barrels per day. The recent data on the Energy Information Administration of USA showed that crude inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels last week, reaching its biggest weekly increase since end-January. The growth far exceeded the market sentiment for a jump of 2.2 million barrels.

Meanwhile, the tensions between Russia and European Union remained high on the eve of the referendum in the Ukrainian region of Crimea. On Sunday, 95% from the Crimean citizens voted for joining of the territory to Russian federation.

At the same time, crude oil and gas giant Gazprom has warned that may stop the supply of natural gas to Ukraine due to the unpaid bills. Such a move was initiated by the Russian side in 2009, which significantly increase the cost of the raw materials. About 30% from all gas supplies of the European Union comes from Russia.

The gold futures continued to rise in the previous week amid the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which increases the demand for safe investments. The contracts on the metal with delivery in April closed the Friday’s session with a growth of 0.62% to 1,381 USD per ounce, achieving an increase of 3.1% on a weekly basis. In this way the precious metal reached a sixth straight week of growth with regard to the investor interest in safer assets.

At the beginning of the new week the precious metal continues to increase its price, adding 0.3% to 1,384 USD per ounce. Yesterday was the referendum in Crimea, which unanimously decided Crimea to join the Russian Federation. This additionally speed up the growth of the gold price, as the investors continued to be scared from the political and economy situation in Central and Eastern Europe. Russia ordered the construction of new military exercises near the border with Ukraine during the last week, which move suggests that Moscow does not intend to abandon its plans to annex the Crimea despite the potential for the imposition of sanctions by the EU and USA.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned for a possible “crash” if Russia did not abandon its intentions.

The interest for investors was also the latest data from China. The industrial production in the country grew with 8.6%, but this was below the forecasts for a rise of 9.5% in February. A month earlier was achieved growth of 9.7%. The retail sales in China even widened with 11.8% during the month, remaining below the expected growth rate of 13.5%, while in January was achieved increase of 13.1%. Moreover, the investments in fixed assets rose with 17.9% in February compared with projected growth of 19.4%, while a month earlier the expansion reached 19.6%.

Shanghai Exchange is ready to release the first CNY-denominated crude oil futures. The aim is contracts to gain popularity in Asia and after that to raise more serious global impact.

The director of the Shanghai Exchange said that foreign investors will be entitled to trade contracts without having to set up a local branch of their company. Subsequently, the trade will be expanded, as in the list of goods will also be included some precious and non-ferrous metals.

“China is the largest importer of crude oil in the world. Naturally the country must have more impact on the global commodity prices”, said the director. “The trade platform is ready over the all technical parameters and will enter in service soon”, added he.

The director of the Exchange did not committed to a specific date, but said that the whole procedure will be finalized by the end of the year.

In September last year, China overtook the United States as the largest net importer of crude oil in the world. In a report from early February to the Energy Information Administration of the United States (EIA) is signed that the Asian country has overtaken USA mainly due to the increased consumption of crude oil in the region. According to EIA China was responsible for 30% of global crude oil consumption in 2013 and is expected the data to remain during the current year.

The price of gold rose to its highest level since September during the Wednesday trading session amid the continued political and military crisis between Russia and Ukraine. The conflict increased demand for the assets such as precious metal, which has traditionally been recognized as a safe haven for investments. The futures of gold with delivery in April rose to 1,365.60 USD per ounce with a daily increase of 1.40%. The level is the highest since the first week of September 2013.

Meanwhile, the silver with May delivery also rose strongly, adding 1.57% to its price and reached the level of 21.142 USD per ounce. The unvestors continued to monitor closely the development od the crisis in Ukraine, where the tensions between Moscow and the West escalated in recent weeks. In today’s key conflict was published by the White House statement of the G7, which calls on Russia to cease all efforts to change the status of Crimea against the Ukrainian law and in violation of international law.

The world leaders have indicated their willingness to take further action, if Russia is attempting to annex the Crimea. The statement was signed by the political leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA, the European Council and the European Commission.

However the copper price is still far from the observed one a month ago, in spite of the fact that reached a growth during the trading session. The price of the red metal with delivery in April rose by 0.31%. The decline came amid the latest economic news from China. In addition, there are concerns about the state of the corporate sector in the country. The investors remain nervous about the indications of weakness in the bond market after the bankruptcy of Chaori Shanghai Solar Energy Science & Technology Co last week.