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Oil prices fell for the second day on Friday, and are on track to fall 0.5% weekly, after the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that rising demand for crude may come to a halt in July, and will rise at a slower rate for the rest of 2021, due to a surge in infections caused by the Delta variant of Covid-19. Source: Trading Economics

While the threats are looming, most analysts still see palladium’s rally as having some room to run before it enters a long-term decline: UBS Group AG sees palladium rising to $2,900 an ounce by year-end and then falling to $2,500 by the middle of 2022 as platinum substitution increases. HSBC Holdings Plc forecasts palladium will average $2,740 an ounce this year. The final act for palladium will likely begin toward the end of this decade as the transport fleet starts to significantly move away from fossil fuels. Electric vehicles will account for a third of global auto sales in 2030, up from 4.3% in 2020, according to BloombergNEF. Source: Bloomberg

Oil pulled back on Thursday after rising in the previous two sessions, with WTI crude futures trading below $69 a barrel as investors balance prospects of an economic rebound in the US and Europe while rising coronavirus cases in China clouds the outlook. Meantime, US President Joe Biden urged OPEC to boost supply more quickly to tame rising gasoline prices. OPEC on Thursday left its forecasts for growth in oil demand in 2020 and 2022 unchanged but lifted expectations for growth in supply outside the organization. Official government figures on Wednesday showed US crude stockpiles fell 0.447 million barrels in the week ending August 6th, below market expectations of a 1.1 million barrels draw and after the API report on Tuesday pointed to a 0.816 million barrels drop. Source: Trading Economics

Last month, CATL introduced a new technology: a cell that runs on sodium rather than lithium, a cheap and abundant element mined from salt. Prices of lithium, which is in limited supply, have almost doubled in the past year, explaining why the company worked on sodium-ion batteries. Source: Financial Times 

Stockpiling operations in importing countries, such as key buyer China, boosted Malaysian palm oil futures to above $4,465 per tonne, not far from a record high of $4,506 recorded on May 12th, supported by arriving shipments facing quarantine measures owing to Covid-19. Source: Trading Economics