Oil rose for another week, but gold again had a narrow fall as global markets finished a mixed week on a mixed note.
In London, Brent crude futures, the global oil marker crude, rose 6.6% over the week to end at $US35.19 a barrel for its best week in a month.
That after touching $US37 a barrel for the first time in eight weeks on continuing hopes for some sort of global production limiting agreement.
In New York, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures, the key US marker crude, rose 10.6% last week to end at $US32.77 a barrel early Saturday morning, our time, for its best week in five.
That was after TWI futures turned negative late in Friday’s trading session.
Prices had spent most Friday trading higher on the back of some upbeat US economic data on growth (an annual GDP growth rate of 1% in the 4th quarter, up from 0.7%, plus a rise in the Fed’s preferred inflation measure) and continuing but forlorn hopes that major oil producers will work together to control supplies.
April West Texas Intermediate crude fell 29 cents, or 0.9%, overnight Friday, to settle at $32.77 a barrel. Like Brent, WTI futures had bounced higher, reaching above the $US34 a barrel level in late trading, only to ease for a loss for a day at the close.
Earlier Friday, the weekly rig use report from Baker Hughes saw another slide in the number of rigs drilling for oil across the US.
It was the 10th weekly fall in a row and the drop to 400 (down 13 on the week) was the lowest figure for six years.
The return of confidence on markets on Friday (they shrugged off the big fall in China earlier in the week) left gold sharply lower on the day, which converted a small weekly rise to Thursday, into a small weekly loss by the close on Friday.
The strength of the US dollar and the recent gains for oil, helped undermine gold on Friday.
Comex April gold futures dropped $18.40, or 1.5%, to settle at $US1,220.40 an ounce in New York – down 0.8% for the week.
But baring a big move today and tonight, gold will end February with a gain of more than 9% for the month, the best monthly performance since the start of 2012.
Comex March silver delivery fell 48.1 cents, or 3.2%, to $US14.689 an ounce.
For the week, it was down a very solid 4.5%.
Comex copper for March delivery added 5.2 cents, or 2.5%, to $US2.118 a pound, for a weekly gain of roughly 2%.
