The euro gained significantly in the middle of the week and passed the $ 1.14 mark. The common currency rose to $ 1.1452 after trading at $ 1.1364 the night before. The reason for the rise in the euro was the prospect that the tightening of the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve will take place more slowly than recently feared. That weakened the US currency. In Jerome Powell’s nomination hearing before the US Senate, the Fed chairman again declared that he wanted to get inflation under control with all means at his disposal, but that he might not proceed as quickly as the minutes of the meeting was read out by investors at the beginning of the year. As expected, consumer prices in the US were up seven percent in December compared to the same period last year.
Industrial metals prices rose sharply on the raw materials market. Nickel rose in price by 4.4 percent at times and, at 22,745 dollars per ton, was as expensive as it was more than ten years ago. Nickel inventories have halved in the past five months and are now lower than they have been in around two years. The reason for this is the electric car boom, says Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann. “Because batteries with a high nickel content are still preferred by car manufacturers.” In the slipstream, the price of tin required for food cans reached a record high of $ 41,490 per ton. The price of copper rose 3.3 percent to $ 10,034.
Thanks to the dwindling fear of a setback for the global economy from the Omikron variant of the coronavirus, investors bought crude oil. The Brent variety from the North Sea rose 1.2 percent to $ 84.70 a barrel.