Oil prices finished above $US50 a barrel on Friday, copper rose, but gold fell for the 4th week in a row.
Seeing stockmarkets have risen for six weeks in row, gold’s weakness isn’t too surprising.
Gold fell again on Friday to end the week off 1.7% and more than 9% over the last four weeks.
The metal closed in New York at $US867.90 an ounce on Comex.
The flow of data last week, especially positive earnings for a couple of major banks, helped boost equities and depress gold.
Despite the longer term bullishness for the metal because of the unprecedented easings around the world and spending, the metal is under pressure because investors want equities to have a run.
New York oil ended at $US50.33 a barrel; 35 higher. ICE Brent crude in London settled at $US53.35, up 29c.
Oil was buoyed by the better US consumer confidence which rebounded in April to the highest levels since September.
New York prices climbed as high as $US51.37 before optimism that the economy was recovering was tempered by comments from Citigroup that consumer credit deterioration continues to be a concern.
That was also a concern for the JPMorgan Chase result earlier in the week where a huge $US4.7 provision was made in the credit card division as losses and arrears continued to rise. And yet that didn’t have the same impact on sentiment.
Those fears saw a late slump on Wall Street and a 130 point gain on the Dow was cut to a 5 point gain in the last hour of trading.
Oil has hovered around $US50 for most of this month and gains have been limited by weak demand and rising crude stocks, which in the US have reached their highest level in 19 years.
The $50-a-barrel level is also key in that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have said it is a good compromise price given the weakness of the global economy.
That’s up from a low of $US32.40 last December as OPEC has cut production and signs that China’s economy might be turning up.
Copper rose, capping a fifth straight weekly gain, the longest rally in a year, as a rebound in shares and those signs of an improvement in China, revived prospects for economic growth and metal demand.
Copper is up 6.1% since April 9, the fifth straight week and the longest weekly rally since April last year, when the price was headed to a record of more than $US8,900 a tonne.
July copper futures rose 1.85c, or 0.8% on Friday to $US2.1975 a pound in New York on Friday.
The consistent buying by China has boosted prices, but there’s doubt about how long this can continue, even with China’s stimulus spending. China is also stockpiling other commodities, with iron ore a notable purchase with a record 52 million tonnes imported in March.
Copper prices have risen 56% so far this year and last week touched $US2.2415, the highest price for a most-active contract since October 20.
On the London Metal Exchange, three month copper rose 1.6%, to $US4,805 a ton ($US2.18 a pound). The price reached a record $US8,940 on July 2.
The Dow Jones finished marginally higher Friday night, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq had similar performances as a strongish rally petered out in late trading.
For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.5%, the Dow 0.6% and the Nasdaq 1.2%.
It was the 6th weekly gain in a row, but the rise wasn’t as positive as in previous weeks.
The S&P 500 is now up more than 28% since the low of March 9 and the year-to-date fall has narrowed to about 4%.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares rose 1.6%, its highest close in more than two months. Over the week, the index gained 4.7%
And the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 4.7% to 196.96, the highest level since early February.
The index has rebounded 25% from the 12-year low on March 9.
National markets rose in all 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX climbed 4.1%, the UK’s FTSE 100 2.7% and France’s CAC 40 added 4%.
Asian stocks rose with the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan up 0.3% on the day and Japan’s Nikkei share average up 1.7%.
The Index was up 2.0% over the week, the best gain since December 2006. Asian markets have rallied 27% since the MSCI benchmark dropped to a six-year low on March 9.
In Australia, the local market ended up for the week after a late sag on Friday.
For the week, the ASX200 added 2.8%, while the All Ordinaries rose 3.1%.
