Another solid week for commodities and the slow burning boomlet continues (which other media are now slowly waking up to).
Oil led the way, hitting their highest levels for more than two years, but gold fell to three month lows.
Helped by the biggest weekly drop this year in the number of rigs drilling for oil and gas, December West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose $US1.10, or 2%, to settle at $US55.64 a barrel in New York on Friday, the highest since July 2015, according to FactSet.
For the week, prices rose about 3.2%.
In London Brent crude futures for January delivery jumped $US1.45, or 2.4%, to finish at $US62.07 a barrel, with the contract also ending a more than two-year high and posting a 3.2% rise for the week.
Baker Hughes said on Friday reported that the number of active US drilling rigs looking for oil fell by 8 to 729.
The figure had risen by just 1 rig last week after three-consecutive weeks of declines. The total active US rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, fell by 11 to 898, according to Baker Hughes.
The data come on the heels of last week’s declines in US crude stocks and expectations that the OPEC will extend its output-cut deal beyond March 2018 continued to support prices when it meets on November 30.
US production rose slightly to 9.553 million barrels a day last week and is now 1.031 million barrels a day above the level of a year ago
US crude stocks rose by 2.4 million barrels from the previous week to 454.9 million barrels.
From the same time a year ago, the price of WTI crude has climbed 25%, while Brent has jumped by 34%.
Gold futures fell last week as the uS dollar continued to firm, especially with the growing expectation that the Fed will lift rates next month.
Comex gold closed near three-month lows in Friday, falling by $US8.90 to settle at $US1,269.20 an ounce—the lowest finish for a most-active contract since early August, according to FactSet.
That saw the contract end the week with a 0.2% loss for its third weekly decline.
In other metals, Comex silver for December delivery fell 1.8% to $US16.834 an ounce, but ended up half a per cent for the week after a 3% surge on Thursday.
Comex December copper shed 0.8% to $US3.118 a pound, ending the week up around 0.5%. Physical iron ore prices remained rangebound on Friday November 3 amid limited trading activity as futures experienced a correction after gains made during the early trading hours.
Iron ore prices remained around the $60-per-tonne-cfr-China mark on Friday amid limited trading activity.
Iron ore prices ended jus 20 cents a tonne lower over the week. The Metal Bulletin said its 62% Fe Iron Ore Index ended at $US59.88 on a tonne on Friday up by up 9US cents. A week earlier The Metal Bulletin said its index price for 62% Fe ore ended at $US60.08 a tonne.
In London, nickel ended the week strongly, up around 10% for the week and 27% for the year so far. LME three-month nickel closed around at $US12,662 a tonne after hitting its highest level in more than two years at $US13,030 a tonne on Wednesday.
And LME three month copper ended up a touch at $US6968 a tonne.
