The slide in oil prices last week dragged other commodity prices with them.
Gold, nickel, copper, and iron ore were among the sliders – iron ore more linked to a sudden evaporation of profit margins in the Chinese steel industry in recent weeks.
That saw the price of 62% ore delivered to northern China drop 6.8% to $US70.13 a tonne from $75.31 the Friday before.
The slump in global oil prices had little or no impact on iron ore prices – that was the impact of the start of the winter heating season and production cuts in northern Chinese steel-making cities that crimped profit margins as steel mills were forced to cut capacity (which increased costs).
Gold futures eased in Friday’s half-day session, pulling back from Wednesday’s, pre-Thanksgiving two-week high.
The market focus remained focused on the slide in oil prices and the value of the US dollar as well as the Trump trade war with China. The US dollar was up 0.4% against a basket of major currencies and 0.5% for the holiday-shortened week.
As a result of Friday’s rise in the value of the greenback Comex gold for December delivery fell $US4.80, or 0.4%, to settle at $US1,223.20 an ounce. It rose less than 0.1% for the week.
In other metals trade, Comex December silver fell 26 cents, or 1.7%, to $US14.243 an ounce, with prices for the white metal down about 0.9% for the week.
December copper gave up 1.4% on Friday to end just over$US2.77 a pound. Copper actually rose 0.4% for the week on Comex.
In London, metal futures weakened on Friday and for most of the week.
LME nickel prices on Friday touched their lowest since October last year, pulled down by worries about a supply surplus in 2019 and weaker demand from China.
Most other base metal prices also fell sharply on concerns that US-China trade talks could fail, leading to weaker economic growth.
Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange closed down 0.5% at $10,915 a tonne after touching a 13-month low of $10,735.
It fell 3.9% over the week
LME copper ended down 0.8% at $US6,207 a tonne, aluminium finished up 0.1% at $US1,949, zinc fell 2.4% to $US2,519, lead dropped 1.3% to $1,968 and tin closed 2.3% lower at $18,800.
