Natural gas rises while transport giants experience volatility

As the financial markets continue to experience turbulence due to ongoing geopolitical conflicts and high levels of inflation, the past week has been filled with volatility, particularly amongst transport giants. Meanwhile, natural gas and Amazon delivered strong returns.

Natural gas continued its rise in value, driven by both cold weather conditions and supply concerns. As a cold spell continues to hit large parts of the US, heating demand has increased, raising concerns among analysts that demand is vastly outpacing accessible supply.

What’s more, this demand is expected to remain strong, continuing this upward trajectory in prices which we anticipate will be reflected in the rising and falling in the weeks to come.

Elsewhere, Uber also witnessed an uptick in value. The ride hailing company rallied strongly in 2023 due to its achievement of GAAP profitability as well as optimism surrounding interest-rate cuts. Additionally, Goldman Sachs analyst, Eric Sheridan, upgraded the company’s rating to ‘buy’, attracting traders and leading to the hike in its share price.

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What’s more, Amazon’s share price increased last week following the announcement that the company’s US revenue for Q4 in 2023 surpassed expectations. In fact, the e-commerce giant gained 81% in 2023, its best performance in 8 years.

A Truist Card analyst attributed this success to the technology company’s wide product range, Amazon’s Prime, as well as the services of Buy with Prime and Supply Chain by Amazon. The rally in the last 12 months is expected to continue in 2024, enticing investors.

Boeing witnessed a considerable nosedive in value following a piece of fuselage falling mid-flight. This incident posed a significant problem for the company’s reputation and credibility, and resulted in airlines grounding the Boeing 737 Max 9 – the plane involved in the incident. The expectation now is that the plane manufacturer will need to pay airlines for lost profit. As a result, traders have been discouraged from investing in the firm.

Furthermore, Tesla also saw its share price decline. This comes after the automaker’s announcement of new price cuts in China. What’s more, due to the current Red Sea supplier disruptions, Tesla halted production in its Berlin factory, leading to a drop in the firm’s valuation.