Many metal prices ended higher Friday, trimming weekly losses but many still suffered a fifth consecutive monthly decline—the longest such streak of losses in more than five years for commodities like gold.
Copper, the key global indicator watched by many analysts lost ground and remained around recent lows at the end of August. In fact copper has fallen by a total of 10% in July and August.
Oil futures though ended August higher.
Comex December gold edged up by $US1.70, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,206.70 an ounce on Friday, trimming its weekly loss to about 0.5%.
That saw the metal lose 2.2% in August its fifth monthly slide in a row, the longest for a most-active contract since the five-month slump ended in February 2013, according to US financial data firm, FactSet.
Comex December silver fell nearly 0.3% to $US14.557 an ounce, down 2.3% for the week and a fall of about 7.1% for August.
Comex December copper ended at $US2.671 a pound On Friday for a loss of 1.7%on the day and a rather nasty 6.4% for August.
In London LME metals fell Friday hit by a stronger dollar and more trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Aluminium, zinc and lead stayed positive in early trading after growth in China’s manufacturing sector unexpectedly picked up in August after a two-month slide.
But they lost steam and five out of six main LME industrial metals ended open outcry trading, according to Reuters.
The last fortnight of the month saw copper recover from a 15-month low of $US5,773 a tonne touched on August 15, but is still a long way off its 2018 peak of $US7,348 hit on June7.
On Friday, benchmark LME copper fell for a third straight session and closed down 1.5% at $US5,975 a tonne.
LME copper slumped 5.1% in August after a 4.9% slide in July.
Global oil ended lower Friday, amid fears of a stepped up US-China trade dispute feeds and concerns about a trade deal between the US and Canada, but prices held on to a solid gain for the month, with US sanctions on Iranian oil expected to lead to tighter global crude supplies in coming months.
In New York, October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures, fell 45 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $US69.80 a barrel.
The October contract ended the week 1.6% higher and finished the month of August with a rise of about 3.2%, according to Factset data.
Based on the front-month contract settlement of $US68.76 on July 31, WTI prices were up 1.5% this month. On Thursday, WTI settled above $70 a barrel to mark its highest finish since July 20.
In Europe, the global benchmark October Brent crude contract which expired at the day’s settlement on Friday, shed 35 cents, or nearly 0.5%, to $US77.42 a barrel.
The contract rose 2.1% for the week and around 4.3% for the month. November now the front-month contract, settled at $US77.64, down 38 cents, or half a per cent.
Earlier in the week, the Energy Information Administration reported that US crude supplies fell 2.6 million barrels for the week ended August 24. That followed a drop of 5.8 million barrels the week before.
And figures out on Friday from Baker Hughes showed the number of active rigs drilling for oil in the US rose by 2 to 862. That was after a fall of nine the week before.
US daily output remains around 11 million barrels a day.
