Despite a stronger US dollar, the Aussie dollar hit a one month high on Friday night of 72.50 US cents as currency movements again played a major part in commodity prices over the week.
The greenback had been firmer in the wake of comments from European Central Bank head Mario Draghi that he remains willing to ease monetary policy further to help the economies of the eurozone (and the rest of Europe).
As a result, oil, gold, copper and a host of other metals (but not zinc) fell Friday night. That capped a week of falls for most commodities.
So US crude-oil futures finished mixed on Friday as the December West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil contract expired.
That increased volatility, leading to swings in prices as traders rolled over to the most-active January contract.
December crude settled down 35 cents, or 0.9%, to finish at $US40.39 a barrel, but January WTI ended 18 cents, or 0.4%, higher at $US41.90 a barrel in New York.
In London, January Brent crude futures (the main international benchmark), rose 1.1% to end at $US44.66 a barrel, despite the stronger dollar.
US crude futures ended with a weekly gain of 2.1%, while Brent crude futures rose 2%.
Crude prices were helped by the weekly report from Baker Hughes, the US big drilling services group, which showed that the number of US oil drilling rigs in use fell by 10 to 564 last week – the lowest number since late 2010.
The number of natural gas rigs were unchanged at 193 but the fall in oil rigs helped shave the total rig-count number down to 757 rigs by the end of the week.
Comex gold futures eased lower in New York on Friday for fifth consecutive weekly decline.
December gold closed $US1.60, or 0.1%, lower at $US1,076.30 an ounce.
That was a weekly loss of 0.4%.
Friday’s fall came after those comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who hinted at more stimulus in Europe.
Comex December silver lost 12.6 cents, or 0.9%, to finish at $US14.096 an ounce, for a weekly loss of around 0.6%.
And elsewhere on Comex, high-grade copper futures for December delivery lost 2.2 cents to finish at $US2.055 a pound, a new six-year closing low.
Copper fell 5.3% last week on Comex.
In London, most metals on the London Metal Exchange (LME) reached multi-year lows last week, leading to an index of six industrial metals traded on the exchange lower on the day and week.
It is in fact down 27% so far this year and is headed for the biggest annual fall since 2008 thanks to weak Chinese growth and continuing oversupply.
LME nickel tumbled to close at $US8735 a tonne, down 2.4% on the day and its lowest since July 2003. The metal is down 42% since January.
However, zinc for delivery in three months rose as much as 5.9% to $US1620.50 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange after a number of Chinese refiners said they would cut output. But the metal couldn’t hold its gains and closed at $US1566 a tonne.
Zinc prices fell to their lowest close since July 2009 on Wednesday. Zinc prices on the LME are down 28% so far this year.
Nyrstar NV, the big European-based miner and refiner (it owns Port Pirie processing complex in South Australia), said this month it may cut output if prices stay low.
China, the world’s top metals consumer, produces more than 40% of the world’s refined zinc.
LME copper slipped 0.7% to end at $US4580 a tonne, after hitting a fresh six and a half year low of $US4561.
