Crude oil prices increased continuously

At the end of yesterday's session, two crude oil products had a fourth session of increase. WTI oil price increased 1.97% to 73.13 USD/barrel and Brent oil price increased 1.73% to 75.93 USD/barrel.

According to the Vietnam Commodity Exchange (MXV), returning to trading after the Tet holiday, the world raw material market closed in the green. Notably, all 5 energy products increased in price, notably crude oil with 4 consecutive sessions of increase leading the trend of the whole market. Meanwhile, the metal market had mixed developments, notably the precious metal group with silver and platinum prices increasing sharply. At the end of the session, the MXV-Index increased by 0.62% to 2,225 points.

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MXV-Index

Energy leads the market's rally

Strong buying pressure in the energy market yesterday. All five commodities increased in price. Of which, two crude oil commodities increased for the fourth consecutive session. The driving factors came from data on continued declines in US oil inventories and expectations of demand from China.

Energy price list

At the end of yesterday's session, WTI crude oil prices increased by 1.97% to 73.13 USD/barrel and Brent crude oil prices increased by 1.73% to 75.93 USD/barrel. Meanwhile, natural gas prices fluctuated and closed with a slight increase.

According to the weekly report of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude oil inventories in the US in the week ending December 27 reached 415.6 million barrels, down 1.18 million barrels compared to the previous week. This decrease is lower than the 1.44 million barrel decrease reported by the American Petroleum Institute and the 2.4 million barrel decrease expected by analysts. However, this is the 6th consecutive week of decline in US crude oil inventories, reflecting the high demand and positive support for prices.

In addition, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his New Year's speech that the country's GDP growth in 2025 is expected to reach the target of 5%. He also emphasized that China will implement more proactive policies to boost the economy in 2025, in the context that the country has been applying timely measures to ensure the goal of high-quality development. In response to this information, investors are cautiously observing and assessing the recovery of the Chinese economy and fuel demand after China's commitment to promote economic growth.

In addition, the US labor market also sent a positive signal when the number of initial unemployment claims was 211,000, down 9,000 compared to the previous week and lower than the 221,000 expected by analysts, and at the lowest level in 8 months. This is a positive signal for the US economy because over the past three years, the labor market has been a factor promoting consumption, and strong consumption has kept the growth pace for the country's economy.

Metal market fluctuates after New Year holiday

According to MXV, returning after the New Year holidays, metal commodities are clearly differentiated, the price list is divided into two halves of green and red. Specifically, in the group of precious metals, silver and platinum prices increased impressively to 29.9 USD/ounce and 922.4 USD/ounce.

Metal price list

The precious metals market is seeing positive buying pressure. In addition, the easing of US monetary policy, along with persistent geopolitical tensions in many regions, including yesterday's Russian drone attacks on Kyiv, have boosted demand for safe-haven assets in the short term.

In base metals, COMEX copper was almost flat after a relatively choppy session. Iron ore, on the other hand, rose about 0.4% to nearly $101 a tonne as the market reacted positively to economic data from China, the world’s top consumer.

Specifically, according to the results of a private survey Caixin, China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) reached 50.5 points in December, marking the third consecutive month of this index in expansion territory. Previously, official figures from the General Statistics Office of this country also gave similarly optimistic results, shown by the PMI index reaching 50.1 points.

Iron ore buying has also been boosted by optimistic forecasts from experts on the outlook for consumption. China’s iron ore imports, which account for about 70% of the world’s iron ore, are likely to hit a new high in 2025 as traders stock up on cheap ore, despite a prolonged property crisis that continues to weigh on steel demand in the country, exporters and analysts said.

China's imports of the key steelmaking raw material are likely to rise by 10 million to 40 million tonnes to 1.27 billion tonnes this year, exceeding previous forecasts, according to a Reuters survey. Earlier data showed the country imported 1.12 billion tonnes of iron ore in the first 11 months of 2024, up 4.3% from the same period last year.

Prices of some other goods