Commodities were left confused for another week, and face more of the same in the days ahead.
A combination of the modest job gains in the US last month, fears about Chinese economic growth and talk of renewed stimulus in Europe saw gold end lower, US oil prices end higher, but European oil futures fell.
And more of the same this week with the start of China’s August economic reports, more uncertainty from central banks, and a public holiday in the US tonight to remove the global guide for the start of the week for markets.
Markets will trade blind for a day or more as a result and will have to reply on Friday’s small, but telling sell-off by Wall Street in the wake of the inconclusive jobs report.
Oil futures finished with a loss on Friday, but scored their second weekly gain in a row.
By the close early Saturday morning US oil prices had trimmed earlier losses after the US weekly oil rig use report from Baker Hughes showed an unexpected drop in the number of working rigs last week.
That was after the August jobs report which wan’t quite weak enough to convince markets that the mooted September rate rise was off.
October West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped 70 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $US46.05 a barrel in New York after hitting a day’s low of $US45.71. For the week, however, prices rose 1.8%.
But in London October Brent crude futures eased $US1.07, or 2.1%, to $US49.61 a barrel, down 0.9% for the week.
Baker Hughes said the number of active oil-drilling rigs fell 13 to 662 by last Friday. The total active rig count, which includes natural-gas rigs, was at 864, also down 13 rigs.
Meanwhile Comex gold futures lost 1.1% last week after the August jobs report provided no guidance. Comex gold futures for December delivery lost $US3.10, or 0.3%, to settle at $US1,121.40 an ounce in New York.
Comex December silver futures lost 15.8 cents, or 1.1%, to $US4.549 an ounce, for a weekly gain of 0.1%. And Comex December copper shed 7.3 cents, or 3%, to $US2.312 an ounce, down around 1.5% over the week.
