Gold continues to rise in price Wednesday and is one step away from an all-time high, MarketWatch writes.
June gold contracts on the New York Comex Exchange were up 0.49% to $2048.2 a troy ounce by 3:55 p.m. Q. The absolute record was set on August 6, 2020 at $2069.4 an ounce, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Silver for May delivery is down 0.26% at $25.04 an ounce.
Gold is supported by recession fears and a weakening U.S. dollar.
“The market is stubbornly adhering to the prediction that U.S. rates will be cut later this year and the path of least resistance for gold is leading upward,” said XM senior investment analyst Charalampos Pissouros.
Prometey Group of Companies has signed a $3 million leasing agreement with the First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB, Kyiv) to produce railcars for grain transportation, the company said on its website.
“Prometey’s positive credit history, availability of its own capital and transparent sources of income all allow us to raise funds in the domestic market, in particular cooperate with leasing institutions, state banks and Western banks,” Irina Ivchenko, head of Prometey Group corporate finance sector, said in a statement.
The group noted that in the second year of the war its companies are under enormous pressure because of the limited working conditions, but continue to “actively move and meet their obligations on time.
At the same time Prometey expressed its willingness to continue cooperation with FUIB, subject to an increase in the limit of financing.
As reported, in January 2023 Prometey stated its intention to expand its fleet of grain trucks up to 200 units. As of January 2023 the holding had 52 grain trucks of its own.
Prometey Group provides services in storing, processing and logistics of crops. Before the Russian aggression, the holding owned 34 elevators in the Nikolayev, Kirovograd, Kiev, Khmelnitsky, Zaporizhzhya, Sumy, Odessa, Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk regions.
In addition, the group has its own land bank of 20 thousand hectares, which it intends to increase this year to 50 thousand hectares and in the future to 100 thousand hectares.
Ukrainian airline SkyUp Airlines evacuated its last plane from Boryspil airport to Iasi, Romania, profile publication avianews reported.
“I can only point out one thing – the flight was made in the interests of the state,” the company’s general director Dmitry Seroukhov confirmed to Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Wednesday.
According to Flightradar24 resource, on April 4, the pilots of Boeing 737-800 SkyUp with UR-SQP registration turned on the aircraft transmitter in the sky near Chernivtsi, the aircraft was en route from Boryspil airport to Iasi, Romania, where it landed at 20:06.
Avianews claims that at night during the full-scale invasion of Russia, pilots tried to evacuate the plane to Chisinau, but air traffic controllers ordered to return to the airport because the sky was closed to civil planes.
According to the profile publication, this is currently the third successful evacuation of passenger aircraft from airports in Ukraine since the large-scale Russian invasion: April 2, 2022 “Rosa Vetrov” evacuated from Lviv aircraft ATR-72, and September 13 also from Lviv could evacuate their Airbus A320 low-cost carrier Wizz Air.
In addition the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on the evacuation of two A400Ms from Boryspil by Turkey in December.
The former head of UIA Yevhen Dyhne reported that the airline had 12 planes “stuck” in Boryspil and another one in Odessa, while Wizz Air had three planes still remaining at Kiev (Zhulyany) airport.
Oil prices are rising Wednesday on signals of declining U.S. inventories, continuing a rebound that began after an unexpected production cut by a number of OPEC+ countries last Sunday.
American Petroleum Institute (API) data released Tuesday night showed a 4.35 million-barrel decline in U.S. oil inventories for the week ending March 31.
The official data on U.S. energy stocks for the previous week will be published by the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The previous week the country’s oil reserves decreased by 7.49 million barrels.
June Brent crude futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange stood at $85.36 a barrel by 8:05 a.m. Wednesday, up $0.42 (0.49%) from the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts rose $0.01 to $84.94 a barrel on Tuesday.
The price of WTI futures for May oil grew by $0.36 (0.45%) up to $81.07 per barrel at electronic trades of NYMEX by that time. At the end of previous session the cost of contracts grew by $0.29 (0.4%) to $80.71 per barrel, the highest since January 26.
Oil prices rose nearly 7% during the first two sessions of the week. On Sunday evening, nine of the 20 OPEC+ countries announced voluntary production cuts from May to the end of the year, in addition to the commitments they had made at last October’s meeting to adjust oil production (a total reduction of 2 mln bpd to August 2022 levels).
Additional voluntary production adjustments by OPEC+ countries will total 1.66 mln bpd.
The unexpected decision of a number of OPEC+ states led to the revision of forecasts for oil prices by a number of experts and caused a new wave of concerns about inflation, Bloomberg notes.
Exports of agricultural products from Ukraine in March 2023 increased by 12% compared to the previous month and reached a record 7.8 million tons since the war, the Ukrainian Confederation of Agrarian Business (UCAB) said in a statement on its website.
“51% of exports in March 2023 were made through the work of the “grain corridor”, and the rest through alternative export routes. However, it is necessary to take into account that not all products had time to physically cross the border,” UCAB pointed out.
According to the data of UCAB, in March 2023, vegetable oils showed the largest increase in the structure of exports – by 28%, to 556.2 thousand tons, oilseeds – by 23%, to 683.1 thousand tons, cereals – by 10%, to 5.7 million tons (corn – 67%, wheat – 29%, barley – 4%) and oilcake – by 10%, to 454.7 thousand tons (sunflower – 83%, soybean oil – 17%).
According to analysts, the important news for the Ukrainian export in March 2023 was the continuation of the “grain corridor”.
“The existence of such an export channel gives hope to Ukrainian agrarians to realize the rest of products of the 2022 harvest and receive funds to continue their economic activities, beginning from the spring sowing season, which is already in full swing”, – the UCAB noted.
The main problem is the significant gap between the world price and the price of major crops on the Ukrainian market. Reducing of this gap would help farmers to accumulate funds for the purchase of fertilizers, pesticides, the use of which will be minimal this year due to limited financial resources of farmers, UCAB summarized.
