Copper And Gold Continue To Slide As Jobs Data Ease Economic Fears
BY REUTERS
Posted 1/5/2007
Commodities bled further Friday, with copper visiting nine-month lows for a third straight day and gold sliding 3% to 10-week lows in a rout that has hurt even the equity markets.
U.S. coffee and cocoa prices closed down 3% each, while other soft commodities like sugar, cotton and concentrated orange juice took a fresh hammering. Grains, however, bounced back, with corn especially powered by short-covering.
Oil also rebounded a touch, recovering some of the 9% it lost in the last two sessions, after a surprisingly strong jobs report that suggested the U.S. economy isn't doing as badly as feared.
Equities tumbled in overnight trade as the selling in commodities spilled into resource stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.7%.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, a barometer of 19 commodity futures, touched a 22-1/2 month low before closing down 0.51% at 291.11.
The energy-heavy Goldman Sachs Total Returns Index lost 6% on the week and settled at a two-year low of 5,296.29 on Friday.
U.S. copper reeled to its lowest price since April 2006 as the dollar raced to a 14-month high against the euro, making dollar-denominated assets, like copper, more expensive for overseas investors.
Copper for March delivery settled down 2.6%, or 6.70 cents, at $2.5350 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division. The stronger dollar also pushed gold to its lowest level in more than two months and caused silver to lose almost 5%.
Comex gold for February delivery ended New York trade down 3.1%, or $19.30, at $606.90 an ounce — a price last seen on Oct. 30.
U.S. crudesettled up 72 cents at $56.31 a barrel after the Labor Department said the economy created 167,000 new jobs in December, compared with forecasts of 100,000. The department also revised up the November figure to 154,000.
London Brent crude rose 53 cents to $55.64 after dropping $2.85 on Thursday.
Rising oil inventories and mild winter weather in the Northeast combined to push crude prices to their lowest level in two years.
March corn on the Chicago Board of Trade ended up 6 cents at $3.68-1/4 a bushel after a bullish private corn crop estimate from Informa Economics.
Corn, used in the making of ethanol fuel, also gained from Friday's rebound in crude.
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