The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) improved 4.0% since the middle of March reflecting improvement amongst several industrial sectors.

Prices in the crude oil & benzene grouping posted a 17.1% rise. The price for a barrel of WTI crude oil rallied to $59.15 as of Friday from the January low of $44.43, but was still off 41.5% y/y. The petro-chemical benzene also improved sharply versus the February lows, but remained down by just over one-third y/y. In the metals sector, prices also rallied since mid-March by 7.0%. Zinc prices led the rebound with a 17.1% increase (15.9% y/y) followed by a 12.3% rise (-4.6% y/y) in copper scrap prices since the end of January. Aluminum prices also moved 8.5% higher during the last eight weeks (10.0% y/y). Steel scrap prices continued to decline to the lowest level since the end of 2009 (-38.7% y/y). Prices in the textile sector also showed improvement with a modest 1.3% rise since the middle of March (-4.4% y/y). Cotton prices rose 7.5% but they're still down by roughly one-quarter y/y. Prices in the miscellaneous materials grouping remained depressed reaching the lowest level since December 2011. Framing lumber prices reached the lowest point since the middle of 2012 (-13.2% y/y) and structural panel prices declined 5.3% y/y. Natural rubber prices had relative strength moving 23.6% higher since mid-October, a low base. They remained down by one-half from the 2011 peak.

Continued support for commodity prices may be on the way. The current industrial output projection from the National Association for Business Economics calls for 3.7% growth in production in 2015 followed by a 3.2% rise next year. During the last ten years, there has been a 52% correlation between the three-month change in prices and the change in industrial output.

Commodity price data can be found in Haver's DAILY, WEEKLY, USECON and CMDTY databases.