Energy Prices

Energy prices decreased 0.3% month on month in July, following June’s 8.0% rise.

After declining for four months and then shooting up in June, energy prices steadied in July. Oil investors got a breather as the U.S.-brokered truce between Iran and Israel held in July, which had threatened to disrupt trade flows from the hydrocarbons-rich Gulf region. In addition, for much of the month, uncertainty over U.S. trade policy ahead of a 1 August deadline to reach deals discouraged investors from trading. That said, natural gas prices fell notably in both Europe and the U.S., reflecting continued inventory builds and record production in the States. U.S. diesel and Australian thermal coal were the only two energy commodities in our report to post notable increases, boosted by an outage at Israel’s Haifa refinery, and a sweltering heatwave in North Asia, respectively.