Among commodities, oil prices fell for a second consecutive week and hit a six week low as the poor economic news and the surge in American oil stockpiles undermined sentiment.
Nymex September crude in New York fell 97c, or 1.3%, to settle at $US73.46 a barrel as the contract expired.
October (the new front-month contract) crude prices fell as low as $US73.19 in trading during Friday, the lowest since the first week of July.
The October crude contract fell 95c, or 1.27%, to end at $US73.82 a barrel while in London the new front-month October Brent contract fell $US1.04 to settle at $US74.26.
Crude futures lost $US1.93, or 2.5%, last week.
Helping knock support was not only the gloomy economic news and the rising level of stocks, but the late swing upwards in the greenback.
The euro fell to a five-week low near $US1.2660 against the greenback after European Central Bank Governing Council member Axel Weber said the ECB should extend its loose monetary stance until early 2011, raising fears of more economic weakness ahead in the eurozone.
Investors also dumped shares and commodities and moved into US Government securities in a flight to quality on worries that a slowing American economy risks dragging the global economy into a new slump.
For the week, the euro fell 0.4% against the US dollar, while the dollar fell 0.6% against the yen.
The Aussie dollar hit a one-month low against the greenback before bouncing to end around 89.30 USc.
Oil prices are now down more than 10% from the August 4 high of $US82.97 a barrel.
Gold fell on Friday as the rise in the US dollar saw the metal sold off on profit taking off the back of a third week of gains.
Gold rose more than 1% last week with the New York spot price this week down slightly at $US1,227.45 an ounce on Friday, from $US1,230.10 on Thursday.
Comex December gold fell $US6.60 at $US1,228.80.
On Thursday gold hit $US1,237.15 an ounce, the highest price since July.
Silver fell to $US17.98 an ounce from $US18.24.
Copper fell on Friday off the back of the weakening US economy and the rise in the value of the greenback.
Comex September copper fell 2.75 USc to $US3.2910 a lb in New York on Friday.
On the London Metal Exchange (LME), three month copper was untraded at the close, but bid at $US7,252 a tonne from Thursday’s finishing quote of $US7,309.
Latest LME data showed copper stocks slipped 1,800 tonnes to 401,725 tonnes, down from the six and a half year high of 555,075 tonnes in February.
LME aluminum ended at $US2,040 a tonne from $US2,066 on Thursday.
LME aluminium stocks for the metal stand at 4.46 million tonnes, down from the all time high of more than 4.64 million tonnes in January.
Tin dropped $US450 to close at $US20,650 a tonne and nickel fell to $US21,550 a tonne.
And sugar hit a five-month high in New York after the US Department of Agriculture indicated domestic supplies are falling.
The USDA said the government will allow one extra month for sugar imports for the current fiscal year, through to the end of October, because of “increased tightness” in the raw-sugar market.
Last month the government lifted the raw sugar import quota for the current year by 300,000 short tonnes.
Futures have declined 26% this year.
New York October raw sugar rose 0.47c, or 2.4%, to settle at 19.95 USc a pound.
Earlier, it touched 20.07 USc, the highest price for a most-active contract since March 11.
For the week, sugar gained 2.7%, the fifth increase in six weeks.
But it’s still down by around 25% over this year.
