Commodities Wrap 1 September: WTI settles 5.2 percent higher at its highest since 23 July as all 5 metals on the board fall
West Texas Intermediate settled 4.46 dollars higher at 90.22 dollars a barrel, a gain of 5.2 percent and its highest close since 23 July, while Brent settled 4.16 dollars higher at 94.65 dollars, up 4.6 percent and its highest since 24 July, according to Reuters. December gold settled at 4,396.40 dollars an ounce, down 1.9 percent.
The wider board, captured at 19:33 GMT after the day’s last settlement window, divided the same way. All 5 energy contracts rose and all 5 metals fell. NY Harbor ULSD heating oil was the strongest row at plus 6.59 percent and palladium the weakest at minus 4.27 percent, a spread of 10.85 percentage points computed from the unrounded changes.
Crude’s gain widened as the day went on, and faster late than early. Measured against the same Monday settlement, West Texas Intermediate stood at plus 2.52 percent at 12:38 GMT, plus 3.58 percent at 16:26 GMT and plus 5.55 percent at 19:33 GMT. That is 1.06 percentage points across the first 3 hours and 48 minutes and 1.97 across the next 3 hours and 7 minutes, so the second leg ran at roughly twice the pace of the first.
Every Metal on the Board Falls
Palladium fell 4.27 percent to 1,319.50 dollars an ounce and silver 3.19 percent to 64.855 dollars. Copper lost 2.33 percent, platinum 2.31 percent and gold 2.22 percent to 4,382.00 dollars at the snapshot, against a settlement 1.9 percent lower.
The uniformity is what stands out. On Monday the metals board was not uniform: copper rose while the other 4 fell. On Tuesday every row moved the same way.
Reuters attributed the fall in gold to rising Treasury yields and a firmer dollar, with technical selling after bullion broke below its 200 day moving average. Those pressures bear on the monetary metals and the industrial ones through different routes, which is worth holding in mind on a day when all 5 moved together.
Energy Rises Across the Board, With Heating Oil Ahead of Crude and Gasoline Behind It
The refined products did not move together. ULSD heating oil gained 6.59 percent to 4.7011 dollars a gallon, ahead of West Texas Intermediate at 5.55 percent on the same snapshot basis. RBOB gasoline added only 2.44 percent, which leaves it 3.11 points behind the same crude contract and makes it the second weakest energy row. Natural gas was close to flat at plus 0.10 percent, the only energy contract that did not move materially.
Converted to a common unit at 42 gallons a barrel, the 2 products moved in opposite directions against crude. The distillate premium over West Texas Intermediate widened from 99.49 dollars a barrel at Monday’s settlements to 106.93 at the snapshot, a gain of 7.44 dollars, while the gasoline premium narrowed from 43.47 dollars to 41.87, a fall of 1.61. Both figures are ours, computed from the published prices. They are simple price differentials between 2 contracts, not refinery margins: a margin calculation needs a product yield slate and run data, and neither is on this board.
Agriculture Splits, With Sugar Higher and Cocoa Lower
The agricultural board divided 4 higher and 3 lower. Sugar led at plus 3.20 percent and soybeans followed at plus 2.37 percent, with corn up 1.44 percent and wheat 0.90 percent. Cocoa was the weakest at minus 3.87 percent, with cotton down 1.73 percent and coffee 1.01 percent.
Cocoa gained 1.99 percent on Monday and cotton 1.65 percent, so both gave back more than Monday’s move and finished below where they started the week.
Rates, the Dollar and Volatility
At the 19:33 GMT snapshot, taken before the United States cash equity close, the CBOE Volatility Index was up 10.12 percent at 16.43. The dollar index added 0.25 percent and the yen weakened, with dollar/yen up 0.30 percent to 160.21. The euro eased 0.22 percent and sterling 0.27 percent. Bitcoin fell 2.15 percent and ether 2.57 percent.
Sovereign yields rose in the sessions that closed earlier on Tuesday. Our Europe wrap recorded all 5 European yields it carries higher at 16:26 GMT, with the German 10 year at 3.363 percent, and our Asia wrap recorded the Japanese 10 year government bond yield reaching 3 percent for the first time in 30 years.
| Energy | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| ULSD Heating Oil, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a gallon | $4.7011 | +6.59% |
| WTI Crude, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a barrel | $90.52 | +5.55% |
| Brent Crude, ICE (Nov’26), dollars a barrel | $95.10 | +5.09% |
| RBOB Gasoline, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a gallon | $3.1521 | +2.44% |
| Natural Gas, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a million Btu | $2.938 | +0.10% |
Most active contract quotes captured in a single call at 19:33 GMT on 1 September 2026, after the day’s last settlement window. These are post settlement quotes, not settlements, and are carried on one consistent basis across all 5 rows so the board is internally comparable. Each change is measured against that contract’s 31 August settlement, so it is settlement to snapshot. Where a 1 September settlement has been reported it differs from the snapshot and is given in the text above: West Texas Intermediate settled at 90.22 dollars against the 90.52 shown here, and Brent at 94.65 against 95.10. The 4 NYMEX bases are CME Group settlements; the Brent base of 90.49 dollars is the previous settlement carried on the quote feed and was not verified at ICE, whose settlement reports sit behind a terms acceptance this wrap did not give. ULSD and RBOB have rolled from September to October since Monday’s wrap, and Monday’s wrap measured its energy rows against quotes rather than settlements, so its published levels differ slightly from the bases used here.
| Metal | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Gold, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $4,382.00 | -2.22% |
| Platinum, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars an ounce | $1,752.70 | -2.31% |
| Copper, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars a pound | $6.5315 | -2.33% |
| Silver, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $64.855 | -3.19% |
| Palladium, NYMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $1,319.50 | -4.27% |
Post settlement quotes from the same 19:33 GMT capture, each measured against that contract’s 31 August settlement at CME Group. December gold settled at 4,396.40 dollars, down 1.9 percent, against the 4,382.00 and minus 2.22 percent shown here; no 1 September settlement was available from an approved source for the other 4 metals. Silver has rolled from September to December since Monday’s wrap, the September contract having entered its delivery period on 31 August; December carried 87,781 lots of open interest at the 31 August settlement against 4,933 in September and 2,627 in October, per CME Group.
| Commodity | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar, ICE (Oct’26), cents a pound | 18.38 | +3.20% |
| Soybeans, CBOT (Nov’26), cents a bushel | 1,318.50 | +2.37% |
| Corn, CBOT (Dec’26), cents a bushel | 545.50 | +1.44% |
| Wheat, CBOT (Dec’26), cents a bushel | 781.00 | +0.90% |
| Coffee, ICE (Dec’26), cents a pound | 308.35 | -1.01% |
| Cotton, ICE (Dec’26), cents a pound | 91.53 | -1.73% |
| Cocoa, ICE (Dec’26), dollars a metric ton | $6,509.00 | -3.87% |
Post settlement quotes from the same 19:33 GMT capture. The corn, wheat and soybean changes are measured against those contracts’ 31 August settlements at the Chicago Board of Trade, which publishes grain prices in eighths of a cent: 537 and 6 eighths for December corn, 774 even for December wheat and 1,288 even for November soybeans. The 4 ICE rows are measured against previous settlements carried on the quote feed and not verified at ICE, whose settlement reports require accepting a confidentiality and redistribution agreement that was not accepted for this wrap. ICE’s public product pages carry a last traded price and no settlement column; the sugar level there read 18.380 against the 18.38 shown here.
| Instrument | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) | 16.43 | +10.12% |
| Dollar/yen | 160.21 | +0.30% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 99.677 | +0.25% |
| Euro/dollar | 1.1590 | -0.22% |
| Pound/dollar | 1.3511 | -0.27% |
| Bitcoin, dollars | $77,307.22 | -2.15% |
| Ether, dollars | $2,418.55 | -2.57% |
Intraday quotes from the same 19:33 GMT capture, ranked by change and measured against each instrument’s previous close. These 7 instruments have no exchange settlement, and the volatility index reading precedes the United States cash equity close. Percentages throughout this wrap are computed from the level and the change rather than taken from the feed’s displayed figure.
Why It Matters
A board on which every energy contract rises and every metal falls is not describing a general commodity move. It is describing 2 different trades running at once, and the 10.85 percentage point spread between the strongest and weakest rows is the measure of how far apart they were.
Tuesday’s crude move cannot appear in any August data, so it is not an explanation of the day’s releases. Our Europe wrap recorded euro area energy inflation at 14.3 percent in August against a headline rate of 3.3 percent, with the measure excluding energy unchanged, and our Asia wrap recorded South Korea reporting petroleum export values rising 65.3 percent on higher unit prices while volumes fell 2.2 percent. Those releases reflect earlier energy price increases. If sustained, a settled gain of 5.2 percent would add to near term energy price pressure, though the timing and degree of pass through into consumer inflation are neither immediate nor one for one, since they depend on product prices, refining margins, exchange rates, taxes and regulated prices. The euro area’s full August figures on 17 September still refer to August and will not contain Tuesday’s move either.
The distillate split matters because NY Harbor ULSD is the principal futures benchmark for distillate products including diesel, heating oil and jet fuel. A 7.44 dollar widening in its differential to crude therefore signals materially stronger relative pricing in middle distillates. That the gasoline differential narrowed on the same day shows the strength was concentrated there rather than spread across refined products.
Outlook
The immediate question is whether crude holds its highest close since July. The reported settlements confirm the direction rather than the size shown on this board, and the full CME settlement file for 1 September becomes freely available after midnight Central, which is the official settlement reference for the following session. The refined products deserve closer attention than the crude: a distillate premium widening by more than 7 dollars a barrel while the gasoline premium narrows is a split that usually resolves within days in one direction or the other. On the metals, the test is whether Tuesday’s uniformity persists, since a board where industrial and monetary metals fall together rarely stays that way for long.
Sources: Reuters, 1 September 2026 settlement prices for West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude and for December gold, and its attribution of the gold move to Treasury yields, the dollar and technical selling; CME Group, official 31 August 2026 settlement prices and prior day open interest for the 12 NYMEX, COMEX and CBOT contracts on this board, used as the base for those 12 changes, and its published policy on settlement data availability; Intercontinental Exchange, public product pages for Brent Crude and Sugar No. 11, last traded prices only; CNBC, most active contract quotes for all 17 commodity rows and the currency, volatility and cryptocurrency levels captured at 19:33 GMT on 1 September 2026, and the previous settlements used as the base for the 5 ICE rows; The Edge, Middle East Market Wrap, Europe Market Wrap and Asia Market Wrap covering the 1 September 2026 session, and the Commodities Wrap covering the 31 August 2026 session.
