Markets, 8 November 2026
Sunday: Friday's final closes are in; oil still down about 13% on the week, copper soft, gold firm
What moved
- Weekend: nothing new traded. All figures below are Friday 6 November closes. Yesterday’s note used Friday’s last live quotes; these are the settled session closes, so a few numbers shift slightly.
- Oil is still the week’s big story. Brent closed at about $98.32, down about 0.9% on the day and about 13% on the week. WTI closed at about $90.83, down about 13% on the week. Contract rolls can distort weekly figures, so treat them as rough.
- Copper soft, steel mixed. COMEX copper closed at about $13,752 a tonne, up about 0.4% on the day but down about 3.8% on the week and about 6% on the month. Aluminium closed at about $3,192, flat. US Midwest HRC closed at about $1,571 a tonne, down about 0.9% on the day but up about 1.9% on the week and about 9.8% on the month. Shanghai rebar is 3,046 yuan a tonne, flat. Zinc still hasn’t updated since 23 October ($3,944), so it’s stale.
- Stocks. The S&P 500 closed at about 7,377 (down about 2.7% on the week) and the Nasdaq at about 24,579 (down about 3.4% on the week, about 11% on the month). Emerging markets (EEM) closed at 59.33. Dubai’s DFM closed at about 6,026, up about 4.4% on the week; Abu Dhabi’s ADX at about 9,393, down about 1.3% on the day and about 5.7% on the month.
- Gold, rates and the dollar. Gold closed at about $4,075 an ounce, up about 4.5% on the week. The latest Treasury yields are still from 5 November: the 2-year at 4.46% and the 10-year at 4.84%. The dollar index closed at about 102.28, up about 0.7% on the day. The monthly US PPIs for copper wire and cable, steel wire drawing and cement are still the September figures.
The truth: Sunday, so this is the week’s final scorecard rather than news. Oil around $98 and down about 13% in a week is the number I’d keep watching: still a comfortable level for Gulf budgets and project pipelines, but the direction has turned. Copper easing helps conductor pricing a little. HRC up nearly 10% on the month says steel-based lines (wire, mesh, fencing, rebar) still need short quote validity. Lower yields and a pegged dirham mean financing costs aren’t getting worse. No new shock since yesterday. Not investment advice.
Sources and as-of dates for every number are on the Markets board.