Investors stocked up on raw materials again on Monday. The industrial metal copper rose 1.5 percent to $ 9,600 per ton. The price of US WTI light oil rose 2.1 percent to $ 69.57 a barrel. The North Sea variety Brent gave back most of its profits and was $ 72.95. On Friday, oil prices crashed by more than ten percent due to concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Energy prices were also boosted by speculation that the oil production alliance Opec + will decide to pause their monthly increases in production at their upcoming meeting, said analyst Jeffrey Halley of brokerage firm Oanda. The increasing US oil production, the release of strategic reserves by several states and possible burdens for the global economy from the Omikron variant would provide the group with the necessary reasons for this. In addition, several producing countries seemed to have no capacity to expand their production anyway.
The prospect of a sustained loose monetary policy by the European Central Bank (ECB) pushed the euro below the $ 1.13 mark. The currency was quoted in the evening 0.3 percent lower at 1.1280 dollars. Despite the high inflation, there will be no turnaround in interest rates for the foreseeable future, according to the head of the Spanish central bank, Pablo Hernandez de Cos. For the coming year and for some time afterwards, it is unlikely that interest rates will rise in the euro zone. Because the conditions for an increase are unlikely to be met in this timeframe. In its updated outlook, the ECB practically pegged low interest rates for a long time. It wants to keep it at the current level or an even lower level until inflation settles at around two percent. The key interest rate has been at a record low of 0.0 percent since March 2016.