How so? The people physically purchasing commodities are doing so by determining how worth it is to them at the current (or future) price, same with sellers. Sp

How so? The people physically purchasing commodities are doing so by determining how worth it is to them at the current (or future) price, same with sellers. Speculators are almost never actually taking delivery, but they are providing liquidity for buyers and sellers by participating in transactions as counterparties. The final price paid by the ultimate physical buyers is based on their own value judgment of quantity demanded per price, and the final price paid to physical sellers is based on that same price (of course, either could be willingly using futures instead of spot prices to reduce risk). Buyers and sellers could trade directly among themselves if they wished, and if the commodity markets were divorced from reality (either unable to deliver on futures contracts or having futures settled at different prices than their contracts stipulate) nobody would use them. Because speculators don’t take delivery, how they react to news and other events is only assisting in price discovery between the time a future is issued and settled, because at settlement time there is no immediate uncertainty regarding supply and demand in the spot market. I think you might be making a common mistake in your comment of equating news for popular consumption with actual news that traders, buyers, and sellers care about (usually very quantitative and well guarded data with nuances that an article for public consumption will never account for). Articles for popular consumption are not moving markets very much, especially in commodities where public involvement is low (vs stocks) and consequently public sentiment has little effect.