Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Today's Major Market Move: Silver Futures Drop 5.9%

The European crisis instigated another risk-off day in the commodities complex with many of them down big and the top losers all being energy and pm related. Silver futures were hit the hardest with a one day 5.9% drop and are now 40% off of the 2011 highs. Natural Gas futures, aka "the Widowmaker" on account of how many traders who have been blown up by it betting big on higher prices, was down 4.4% and is on the verge of a 2 handle. Here's the list of the top losers:

Click here to go to the live table.
WTI Crude futures, a commodity we like to focus on in this blog, dropped over $5 all the way back down to $95. Here we witness the same old story where anytime WTI breaches the psychologically important $100 level, the Fed and its proxy, the ECB, take a break from the stimulus and bailout talk until they are given some breathing room. The Fed announcement yesterday was considered a disappointment by those looking for more easing and a few hours later the Germans poured cold water on continued one-off solutions by the ECB.

It is interesting how on a day like today, with continued pessimism surrounding the European economies, the market reacts much more negatively towards commodities than European equity indexes. The worst performing European equity index, the Dutch Amsterdam Midkap Index, fell just 3.4%. Here's the top 10 worst performing equity indexes:

Click here to go to the live table.

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