Commodity Market Shocks & Crises

Detailed analytical dossiers covering geopolitical embargoes, exchange rule interventions, corner attempts, and acute physical storage failures.

-78% from January peak to March crisis 1973–1980 (Peak: January 18, 1980; Crash: March 27, 1980) Primary: Silver

1980 Silver Thursday & The Hunt Brothers Corner

How two Texas oil barons attempted to corner one-third of the world's private silver supply

Billionaire brothers Nelson Bunker and William Herbert Hunt accumulated over 200 million ounces of physical silver and leveraged futures contracts to hedge against US dollar debasement. When COMEX and CBOT enacted emergency liquidation-only rules and raised margin requirements, the brothers suffered a $100M margin call on March 27, 1980, requiring a $1.1B consortium bailout to protect Wall Street brokerages.

Nominal Price Extreme $49.45 / troy oz

Inflation-Adjusted Value $201.03 / troy oz

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Roughly fourfold price increase October 1973 – March 1974 Primary: Crude Oil (WTI)

1973 OPEC First Oil Shock & The Yom Kippur Embargo

The weaponization of petroleum exports and the end of the post-WWII cheap energy era

Following the outbreak of the Fourth Arab-Israeli (Yom Kippur) War, OAPEC declared an oil embargo against Western nations supporting Israel. Global crude prices quadrupled within months, causing fuel rationing, the 1973–1974 stock market crash, and the birth of modern energy policy.

Nominal Price Extreme $11.65 / barrel in January 1974 (from $2.90 before the embargo)

Inflation-Adjusted Value $79.16 / barrel

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-312% from opening price to settlement April 20, 2020 Primary: Crude Oil (WTI)

April 20, 2020: The Day Crude Oil Traded at -$37.63

Storage exhaustion, pandemic lockdowns, and the physical breakdown of the May 2020 WTI contract

The COVID-19 demand collapse and an oversupplied oil market put pressure on crude storage. With available storage at Cushing scarce, the May 2020 WTI futures contract settled at −$37.63 per barrel on April 20, the day before expiry.

Nominal Price Extreme -$37.63 / barrel

Inflation-Adjusted Value -$48.70 / barrel

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