Commodity prices ended mixed on Friday after the Mubarak resignation.
Oil, gold and copper all lost a bit of steam, but cotton hit a new record on renewed supply concerns from Australia, China and Pakistan in particular.
The price jumped above $US1.90 a pound in New York, to take the gain since the start of last year to a huge 150%.
On Friday, the benchmark ICE March cotton contract rose 3.7% to an intraday peak of $US1.9455 a pound.
Reuters said that was the highest in the 141-year history of the New York exchange and its predecessors, and it is was also above the price reached during the cotton embargo of the American civil war in the 1860s.
It was yet another record for the commodity over the last 13 months.
In that time, gold, copper, sugar and oil have also all hit either a series of new all time highs (gold and copper), or multi-year highs (sugar especially).
Wheat and corn prices are kicking higher thanks to the drought in Russia, the floods in Australia, the poor winter in many parts of the US, the floods in Pakistan and now the emerging drought in China’s wheat growing region.
Oil prices fell to a 10-week low on Friday after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down and handed over power to the army.
Mubarak’s departure came after 18 days of mass protests that had helped push ICE Brent crude futures above $US100 a barrel in London for the first time since 2008.
Match ICE Brent crude for March delivery (which expires on Friday) held on to some gains after the Mubarak departure, but Brent contracts for nearby months were lower.
Brent’s premium to US crude reached $US16.02 a barrel as prices fell on Egyptian developments, but that was just below the $US16.09 record hit last week.
But the spread between April contracts was lower at around $US12 a barrel and a better indicator than the expiring March contract.
Nymex crude futures in New York saw the March contract fall $US1.15 to settle at $US85.58 a barrel, the lowest close in 10 weeks. That was down 3.9% and was the biggest weekly percentage loss since the week to November 19 last year.
The March Brent crude contract ended up around $US1 a barrel at $US101.94, but the more actively traded April contract fell 32c to $US101.12 a barrel in London.
That left the so-called Brent premium at over $US16 a barrel, a mark of the huge oversupply at Cushing in Oklahoma where the West Texas Intermediate style crude can be delivered under the US futures contract.
Traders ignored a rise in US consumer sentiment in the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Survey to an 8 month high.
The US dollar rose, which didn’t help oil and gold, but it wasn’t a big factor.
Gold futures ended lower Friday on the Mubarak reports.
Comex gold for April delivery fell $US2.10, or 0.2%, to end at $US1,360.40 an ounce in New York.
But it was still 0.8% up over the week.
A resolution of the conflict in Egypt diminished gold’s safe-haven appeal, analysts said.
Other metals were also lower, feeling the pressure of a firmer greenback.
Copper and silver futures fell.
Comex March copper fell one cent to $US4.54 a pound and lost 0.9% over the week.
Comex March silver was off 10c, or 0.3%, to $US29.99 an ounce, but was up 4.4% for the week.
