Commodity prices stabilised on Friday after the worst week for over a year.
The firmer euro against the US dollar helped, so the greenback fell and the euro ended higher.
Copper, oil, some agriculturals and precious metals regained a little ground at the end of a week of hefty losses.
The fears about Europe and China and a small bout of concern about the health of the US economy, combined with the escalation of fears about risk, triggered the heavy selling up to Friday.
But Friday’s late recovery didn’t stop commodity market indicators from finishing in the red for the week and adding to the month’s losses so far.
For example, the Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodities index dropped 2.3% for the week and is down 9% in May so far.
Oil had a better day Friday but still ended lower for the ninth day in a row.
July Nymex WTI crude fell 76c, or 1.1%, to end at $US70.04 a barrel on Friday, up from the day’s low of $US68.95 a barrel.
The close is around $US17-$US18 a barrel off the 18 month highs at the end of April and in early May.
Oil lost around 2.2% for the week, with most of that coming Thursday and Friday.
The dollar index, which compares the US currency to a basket of six currencies, declined 0.1% to 85.44USc.
The euro ended high over the week at $US1.257.
Gold and silver settled lower on Friday, despite the slight weakness for the greenback.
Gold futures ended lower for a day on Friday.
Comex June gold for June delivery dropped $US12.50, or 1%, to $US1, 176.10 an ounce.
Gold shed 4.2% last week after some profit-taking in the wake of the record high of $US1, 243.10 on May 12.
Among base metals and minerals, three month copper on the London Metal Exchange jumped 3.4% on Friday, but still was down 1.3% over the week.
Aluminium fell 1.3% over the week.
Platinum and palladium, which took a beating in the past couple of sessions, rose as well, but silver was lower.
On Wednesday and Thursday platinum had its biggest fall in 17 months and palladium had its biggest drop in 12 years over both days.
Last week palladium lost around 20% in value.
This year palladium is up 7.5% and platinum is up 21%.
In New York, Comex copper for July delivery added 12 cents, or 3.9%, to $US3.0610 a pound.
July silver for fell 6 cents, or 0.4%, to $US17.65 an ounce.
