Commodities

Silver is in the spotlight this week, after the popular r/WallStreetBets community on Reddit highlighted the fundamental value in acquiring silver at current levels. The online posting was the catalyst for increased retail flows and awareness. Last Thursday 28 January, the popular silver ETF, SLV, saw increased volumes, trading at over 5% premium to its underlying silver holdings.

Yesterday was a historical day in the oil market. The American market, called West Texas Intermediate (WTI), moved to minus USD40—a fantastic move. The reason for this is likely connected to storage issues as people are consuming far less fuel amid the quarantines.

Total announces the closing of the acquisition of Anadarko’s 26.5% operated interest in the Mozambique LNG project for a purchase price of $ 3.9 billion.

— IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN) and Total announce that they signed a strategic R&D partnership yesterday, that includes an agreement to endow a chair at the IFP School, on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and technologies to curb CO2 emissions. The roughly €40 million partnership covers a period of five years.

Although the year was positive for natural resources overall, their performance lagged the global markets. 2018 could offer better prospects, an uptick in inflation being perhaps the best scenario for the theme.