Gold and silver were star commodities in August, thanks to Donald Trump and his ham-fisted trade war with China and Boris Johnson’s equally ham-fisted approach to Brexit, which in turn helped undermine other commodities such as oil and copper and especially iron ore.
While gold was up around 6% in August and silver did even better with an 11% leap, iron ore prices ended the month down 28% – despite a 4% rise on the final trading day on Friday.
The Metal Bulletin Fastmarkets iron ore index for 62% Fe fines, delivered to northern China jumped $US3.19 or 4% to end August at $US84.66 per tonne. That was well down on the $US117.15 a tonne at the end of July.
Oil was down around 6%, US petrol futures lost 18%; lean hogs in Chicago were down more than 9%; Chicago corn futures fell 10% lower, and ethanol lost more than 7% down for the month as of Friday according to Marketwatch.com.
US copper futures fell 4% last month, a victim of the weakening level of activity in China and perhaps in parts of US industry.
Comex gold futures settled lower on Friday for a loss for the week, but a fourth consecutive monthly gain
Gold for December delivery on Comex lost $US7.50, or 0.5%, to settle at $US1,529.40 an ounce, 0.5% for the week, but a gain of 6.3% for August.
Gold’s recent surge stopped this week after the US and China made conciliatory noises around their trade, war even though investors remain worried about Trump’s unpredictability.
December silver rose 1.9 cents, or 0.1%, to $US18.342 an ounce on Friday, pushing the month’s gain to just on 11%.
In other metals trade, October platinum rose 1.3% to $US931.70 an ounce, for a monthly rise of about 6%, while December palladium jumped 4.6% to $US1,539.20 an ounce producing a 1% gain for the month
December copper lost 1% at $US2.5515 a pound, with the contract down about 4.8% for the month.
West Texas Intermediate crude for the October delivery fell $US1.61, or 2.8%, to settle at $US55.10 a barrel in New York. That was a loss of 5.9% for August.
The weekly report from Baker Hughes report on oil rig use fell 12 to 742 last week. That followed the previous week’s fall of 16. The number of active oil rigs in use has fallen by 16% or 140 so far in 2019.
Global benchmark October Brent crude futures which expired at the end of the session, finished at $US60.43, down 65 cents, or 1.1%.
That was up 1.8% for the week but down 7.3% for the month.
November Brent crude which became the front-month at the settlement on Friday, lost $US1.24, or 2.1%, to settle at $US59.25 a barrel.
