Commodities (Crude Oil & Copper) & Macro Outlook

NYMEX August WTI crude oil futures settled at $68.58 per barrel, while natural gas futures closed at $3.22 per million British thermal units. August gasoline futures ended at $2.9452 per gallon, and heating oil futures settled at $3.2179 per gallon.

Shanghai Futures Exchange crude oil futures contract 2608 closed down 3.43% overnight at 444.60 yuan per barrel. Shanghai gold and silver rose 1.23% and 1.44% respectively in the night session.

According to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Slovalco aluminum smelter will begin resuming furnace operations in August-September 2026, with planned commercial production starting in Q4 2026. The facility, controlled by Norway-based Norsk Hydro ASA, will invest €100 million (approximately $114 mi

On July 1, London Metal Exchange (LME) base metals futures closed with mixed performance. LME copper fell $76 to $13,298 per ton, aluminum declined $10 to $3,076 per ton, and zinc dropped $52 to $3,499 per ton. Lead closed down $10 at $1,866 per ton. Conversely, nickel gained $68 to $16,355 per ton

According to a U.S. official, oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz has surged to over 10 million barrels daily in recent weeks, supported by U.S. military efforts. The United States is pressuring Iran to comply with maritime provisions and establish a long-term agreement to ensure commercial

Following its recent designation as a Designated Contract Market by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Novig has selected Eventus' Validus platform as the trade surveillance solution for its newly approved prediction market exchange. The deployment enables Novig to monitor trading

According to BlockBeats, on July 1, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are negotiating with upstream substrate suppliers to rescind the 3% to 4% price increases implemented earlier this year for H2 2026 deliveries. The chipmakers, which raised substrate prices in early 2026 in response to surging

On July 1, 2026, the global asset market received a signal that was not entirely unexpected but nonetheless significant: Iran formally denied plans for a direct meeting with the United States in Doha. The previous day, U.S. President Trump posted on social media that Iran had proposed talks and that "talks will be held in Doha tomorrow." However, on June 30, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Bagheri stated at a regular press conference that "no meetings at any level with the U.S. are schedul

According to Guru Club, on July 1, WTI crude oil futures fell 1.07% to $68.753 per barrel, while Brent crude fell 1.00% to $72.219 per barrel. Both contracts hit their lowest levels since February 27.

According to BlockBeats citing Hyperinsight monitoring, on July 1, the largest WTI crude oil long holder on Hyperliquid (address 0x007d) is approaching liquidation. The address holds a 20x leveraged long position of approximately $12.57 million with an average entry price of $87.59, while WTICRUDE n

According to Jin10, on July 1, pulp futures warehouse inventory increased by 6,696 tons to 273,189 tons, marking the primary shift among Shanghai Futures Exchange energy and chemical commodities reported today. Stone bitumen futures factory inventory declined 1,700 tons to 18,470 tons. Most other

WTI crude fell more than 1% intraday today to $69.17 per barrel, while Brent crude declined 0.75%.

According to Jin10, Asian equity markets led a mixed asset performance in the first half of 2026. South Korea's KOSPI index surged 100%, while Taiwan's weighted index gained nearly 60% and Japan's Nikkei 225 rose around 40%, driven primarily by AI-related semiconductor strength and favorable

MOL, Hungary's state-controlled oil and gas company, has received formal approval from the U.S. Department of Treasury to continue negotiations for the acquisition of Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), Serbia's national oil company. The authorization is valid until

Alcoa has agreed to acquire South32's bauxite, alumina and aluminum assets for up to $5.6 billion. The transaction includes $3.1 billion in cash, approximately $1 billion in Alcoa stock, along with assumption of $750 million in net debt and lease liabilities. If alumina and aluminum prices exceed ag

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), American crude oil production reached 13.93 million barrels per day in April, marking a historic high. Meanwhile, Brazil's state-owned oil company announced on July 1 a diesel price cut of 0.35 reais per liter for distributors,

According to Jin10 Futures, as of June 25, 2026, China's polyethylene (PE) operating load rose to 75.06% week-on-week, up 0.98 percentage points. Recent restarts of previously idled units at Sichuan Petrochemical and独山子 Petrochemical drove the increase, while only limited new maintenance was

Carl Rinsch misappropriated approximately $11 million from Netflix's "Conquest" budget. After losing funds in the stock market, he shifted to Dogecoin and profited about $23 million, but the gains were not returned to production funds and instead spent on luxury purchases. The court sentenced him to 30 months for wire fraud, money laundering, and illegal financial transactions, with forfeiture of proceeds and 3 years of supervised release. Netflix recovered completed materials and copyright; arbitration requires the return of approximately $8.78 million.

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) Europe route fell to 2,552.5 points at midday on July 1, down 10.08% since open amid increased volatility.