In this beginning of the week, the attention of all the operators of the international commodity exchanges is aimed at Sandy, the hurricane that is about to hit the American east coast and which could collide with a wave of icy northern air, giving shape to a "perfect" storm, already christened Frankenstorm. Trading closed on the Nyse, the Nasdaq and the major US futures exchanges, probably also inactive tomorrow, if we exclude trading by electronic means. The Department of Agriculture also deferred reporting on the status of rice stocks and crop progress.
To find similar precautionary interventions, it is necessary to go back to January 96, when a snowstorm hit New York, or even further back in time, to September 85, when fears arose from the approach of hurricane Gloria. The price movements were clearly influenced by the weather alert: West Texas Intermediate crude fell more than 1% in the early hours of the day as the closure of several New Jersey refineries caused a lack of demand for oil, while the prices of distillates rose for the same reason . In addition to the temporary reduction in the supply of petrol and diesel, there is in fact the fear that the processing plants will be damaged by the passage of the storm. At least 7 refineries operate in the area at risk, with a total capacity estimated by Bloomberg at 1,29 million barrels per day, and supplies from the seaports of New York, New Jersey and Delaware are also blocked in these hours. In London, however, Brent recovered a few fractions of a percentage point, widening the gap between the two reference crudes.
In the meantime, hurricane Sandy remains threatening, with winds that reached peaks of 85 miles per hour in the morning. A wall of water, snow and wind could therefore overwhelm the entire North-East of America in the next two days and has already caused a strong downsizing of the final events of the campaign for the upcoming presidential elections. On the other hand, the US meteorological offices speak openly of "a phenomenon of extension never seen before", the result of a concurrence of unfavorable events. In Battery Park, in southern Manhattan, a dangerous tidal wave is expected: Sandy (Sandro, in Italian) could match Donna, the hurricane that in 1960 caused tidal waves of more than 10 feet (more than three meters), and dwarf the memory of Irene, who in August 2011 caused 8 feet of it. Note that Sandy has already left a trail of victims in the Caribbean: at least 65, according to the Bloomberg agency. As for the surface area affected, according to the Weather Underground of Michigan, examining the last decades it is inferior only to those of hurricanes Olga (2001) and Lili (1996).
