Stock prices and crypto prices get most of the attention, but commodities -- crude oil, natural gas, copper -- move markets and household budgets in ways that are easy to overlook. Gas prices at the pump, heating bills in winter, the cost of building materials -- all of it traces back to commodity prices most people never actually look at directly.
Commodities aren't quoted like stocks
A stock price is straightforward: one share, one price. Commodities are quoted per unit of a specific measure, and the unit depends on the commodity:
- Crude oil trades in barrels (one barrel is 42 US gallons). You'll usually see it as WTI (West Texas Intermediate) or Brent, the two major benchmark grades -- WTI is the US benchmark, Brent is the international one, and they often trade at slightly different prices because of where they're produced and how they get to market.
- Natural gas trades in MMBtu (million British thermal units), a unit of energy content rather than volume, since gas is measured by how much heat it can produce.
- Copper trades in price per pound on exchanges like COMEX.
None of these units are intuitive if you're not already in the industry, which is a big part of why commodity prices feel opaque compared to "Apple stock is up 2% today."
Futures prices, not spot delivery
Most of the commodity prices you'll see quoted -- including on most trackers -- are futures prices: contracts to buy or sell a set quantity of the commodity at a set price on a future date. Futures are how commodities actually get traded at scale, since producers and buyers use them to lock in prices ahead of time rather than transacting the physical barrel or ton on the spot.
This is worth knowing because a futures price reflects where the market expects the price to be at delivery, not necessarily what you'd pay for immediate physical delivery today. It's also why you'll sometimes see different contract months for the same commodity trading at different prices.
Why these three specifically
Oil, natural gas, and copper aren't arbitrary picks -- they're widely tracked because each one acts as a signal for something broader:
- Oil prices ripple into transportation costs, plastics, and a wide range of manufactured goods.
- Natural gas prices directly affect heating and electricity costs in a lot of regions, especially in colder months.
- Copper is used so heavily in construction, electronics, and electrical wiring that traders sometimes refer to it as a rough gauge of industrial demand -- when a lot of copper is being bought, it's often a sign a lot of building and manufacturing is happening.
What actually moves them
Supply and demand, same as anything else -- but for these three specifically, that means production decisions (how much oil producers choose to pump), weather (a cold snap spikes near-term natural gas demand fast), inventory levels, and geopolitical events affecting supply routes or producing regions. None of these are things you can predict from the price chart alone.
Track them live
If you want to see where crude oil, natural gas, and copper are trading right now without digging through a financial terminal, the Commodity Price Tracker pulls live futures prices for all three in one place.