Commodities desk · Evening edition · Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Crude's slide to Brent near 95 shows last week's war premium unwinding fast, and cheaper diesel and gasoline are easing fuel costs for users such as Uber's mobility unit.
On November 4, Energy's move of -4.74% was the lowest of its 259 earlier daily moves, the most unusual of the 12 instruments shown. Of those, 12 sit in the outer tenth of their own histories.
Drawn from the numbers stored with this edition; the same picture is on its share card.
Sugar's -3.83% move ranks at the 0th percentile of its own daily moves. Sugar sits 13.3% below its October 15 high; the deepest point was -16.2% on April 17.
The picture on the morning edition's share card, drawn from the numbers stored with that edition, written Nov 4, 2026, 9:34 AM EST. The evening edition above replaced it as this day's latest edition.
Energy set the tone again, and the fall deepened through the session. Crude has now shed most of the late-October premium, with Brent near 95 and WTI near 88.5, and gasoline and diesel followed it down. The EIA's weekly rows show US distillate stocks lower again, so the fuel slide is a price story rather than a glut. Metals rebounded and grains barely moved, so oil, not a broad commodity swing, carried the day.
Metals gave the day its second storyline. Platinum and palladium funds jumped hardest, with palladium up almost eight percent after a month of slides, and silver outran gold again. Copper was nearly flat at 6.42, a quiet growth read. CNBC reported that Beijing is building agencies and state-backed vehicles to own more overseas stakes in the metals it depends on, though it gave no deals. In the fields, corn and wheat held their ground, soybeans and soybean oil slipped, and Kraft Heinz agreed to sell its North American coffee unit for $650 million.
For anyone holding real assets, the message is that the inflation impulse from fuel is fading faster than the one from metals. Cheaper gasoline and diesel ease the cost pressure that CNBC said Uber's mobility unit met overseas through higher fuel costs. A softer dollar and lower 10-year yield gave precious metals room to bounce. CNBC reported Democratic midterm wins, but nothing supplied ties commodity prices to the vote.
- WTI fell 7.86% to 88.54 and Brent 8.19% to 95.11, giving back most of the late-October climb.
- Diesel fell 6.89% to 4.22 and gasoline 6.80% to 2.74, while US distillate stocks fell 3.5% on the week.
- Natural gas rose 1.97% to 2.95, with storage at 3,724 bcf, 0.4% above its seasonal normal.
- Palladium's fund rose 7.85% to 18.27 and platinum's 5.62% to 13.54, the sharpest rebounds in the group.
- Silver gained 5.23% to 52.35 and gold 3.42% to 4,075, so silver again outran gold.
- Copper edged up 0.20% to 6.42 and is down 3.76% on the week, a muted growth read.
- Corn rose 0.73% to 445.75 with 56% rated good to excellent against a 60% five-year average.
- Soybeans fell 0.84% to 1,203.75 and soybean oil 2.91%, while wheat was flat at 599.25.
- Coffee fell 1.57% to 279.50 as Kraft Heinz agreed to sell its North American coffee unit to One Rock for $650 million.
- Brent at 95.11 sits about 6.57 above WTI at 88.54, narrower than the gap of roughly 7.5 a day earlier.
- Diesel at 4.22 remains far above gasoline at 2.74, and both fell a little less than crude on the day.
- Silver's 5.23% gain against gold's 3.42% narrowed the gold-silver ratio again.
- Metals rebounds follow steep monthly losses, so downside-aware sizing still fits precious and industrial metals.
Volatility fell to its lowest close in this window as stocks rallied, a different story from oil's slide.
Brent has fallen from its late-October peak to below 100, extending the unwind of the war premium.
WTI closed below 90 for the first time in this window, back near early-October levels.
The numbers behind it
Top to bottom: Upstream driver, Commodity, Where it goes
- Upstream driver
- Physical flow
- Divergence
Every move here is measured between two stored daily closes, so the reading belongs to a session rather than to a time of day. This block is cut at the 2026-11-04 session. Anything named as a driver comes from a stored series and never from a headline.
- Broad Commodities (DBC)31.29USD-3.54%
- Diesel and Heating Oil (ULSD)4.206USD/gal-7.18%
- Gasoline (RBOB)2.729USD/gal-7.05%
- WTI Crude Oil and Gasoline (RBOB)DivergenceCrude against gasoline: -8.29% against -7.05% today, and the spread between them sits 1.7 standard deviations from its own average over the last 60 stored sessions.
- WTI Crude Oil and Diesel and Heating Oil (ULSD)DivergenceCrude against diesel: -8.29% against -7.18% today, and the spread between them sits 1.7 standard deviations from its own average over the last 60 stored sessions.
- US gasoline product supplied+5.4%US gasoline product supplied is 8,808 MBBL/D for the week ending 2026-10-30, +5.4% against 8,358 in the prior published week.2026-10-30
- US distillate inventories-3.5%US distillate inventories is 99,259 MBBL for the week ending 2026-10-30, -3.5% against 102,824 in the prior published week.2026-10-30
- Trucking fuel costfrom Diesel and Heating Oil (ULSD)The trucking and rail paths from diesel are the price of the FUEL and not the price of moving the load. A freight rate is a different number, and where one is drawn on this page it is labelled as a rate.
- Rail fuel costfrom Diesel and Heating Oil (ULSD)The trucking and rail paths from diesel are the price of the FUEL and not the price of moving the load. A freight rate is a different number, and where one is drawn on this page it is labelled as a rate.
- Gold4,073.00USD/oz+3.37%
- Silver52.120USD/oz+5.11%
- Copper6.403USD/lb+0.38%
Across the complex
- The crude to diesel spread is 2.0 standard deviations from its 60 session average.
- Gold fell 0.74% against silver at 2.23%, 2.6 standard deviations from the 60 session average. SLV silver held in trust, a proxy for investment demand, rose 1.6%, so fund holdings do not explain silver's fall.
- Palladium rose 7.85% while gold and silver fell, yet it is still down 14.14% on the month. It carries the largest net short in the metals group at -49.1% of open interest.
Go deeper
The Commodities desk's own dashboard: what is moving, why, and where it goes next. Open it
The desk voices are written by AI, not by human reporters. Every figure is taken from the listed market, sensor and headline data, and an automated check flags any figure or quoted source that is not.