Oil rose, but gold futures started February on a bit of a downer, however, January’s strength propelled them to a weekly gain.
The stronger US jobs report for January and a solid rebound in the key index of US manufacturing index last month (which offset weaker consumer confidence) failed to offset the Fed-driven belief that US interest rates are on hold for the time being.
Normally the 304,000 new jobs, a 3.2% annual rise in wages and rebound in the strength of manufacturing would have had analysts chattering about tighter monetary policy.
But after the Fed made it clear last week it had switched camps and was now in with the doves and being ‘patient’ on rates, there was no chatter and this sent gold lower.
Comex April gold edged down by $US3.10, or 0.2%, to settle at $US1,322.10 an ounce. Based on the most-active contracts, prices ended 1.9% higher for the week, according to FactSet.It was gold’s second weekly climb in a row.
Comex March silver fell 0.9% to $US15.931 an ounce. For the week, prices were up 1.5%, while Comex March copper fell 0.4% to $US2.773 a pound, for a weekly rise of 1.6%.
April platinum added 0.2% to $US826.70 an ounce, up 1% over the week while March palladium settled at $US1,313.60 an ounce, up 1.1% on the day but down half a percent over the week.
Oil rose on Friday and for the week, helped in part by the big freeze in the midwest and US sanctions on Venezuela, but traders ignored another sharp fall in the number of rigs drilling for oil across the US.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil for March delivery rose $US1.65, or 3.1%, to $US55.44 a barrel in New York. For the week, they traded up more than 3% after January’s 18% plus rise..
In Europe, April Brent gained $US1.80, or 3%, to $US62.64 a barrel. Prices were up around 1.6% for the week after the 15% jump in January.
The fall in the number of active US oil rigs for the second week in the last three suggests a potential slowdown in domestic production activity.
Baker Hughes’s weekly drilling report on Friday showed the number of active rigs looking for oil in the US fell by 15 to 847 last week. That more than offset the increase of 10 in the oil-rig count from a week earlier.
With that big fall of 24 two weeks previously, the total number of rigs is down 29 in the past three weeks. The total active US rig count also declined by 14 to 1,045, according to Baker Hughes.
