Iron ore steadied, gold rose slightly, silver was up, oil jumped and copper ended up being the star commodity last week.
Copper futures quietly grabbed the limelight with Comex futures hitting levels not seen since June 2018.
Comex’s December rose 5 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $US3.116 a pound, the highest over two years.
Copper first jumped above $US3 a pound in mid-July, dipped back for a couple of weeks, and then came again, hitting that 26 month high on Friday.
That saw copper rise 2.5% over the week as the metal was supported by the weaker US dollar and stronger than expected Chinese industrial production.
Meanwhile, London Metal Exchange three-month copper price hit a new 2020 high on Friday.
All LME three-month base metals prices, with the exception of nickel, saw gains on Friday, with copper reaching a new high of $US6,875 a tonne before eventually closing at $6,861 a tonne.
Comex gold took the spotlight with a second (small) weekly gain in a row.
December gold rose $US12.20, or 0.6%, to settle at $US1,962.10 an ounce, following a 1.1% slide on Thursday.
Comex December silver added 3 cents, or 0.1% to finish at $US27.129 an ounce, following a 1.4% drop the day before.
For the week, gold was up 0.7%, following a similar climb the week before while silver saw a 1% advance.
Iron ore prices rose on Friday after three days of falls and ended the week down from the week before.
The price of 62%Fe fines delivered to northern China rose $US2.54 to $US124.90 a tonne. The price had peaked at more than six-year highs on Monday at $US130.17. The fall for the week was $US3.47 a tonne, or 2%. The fall from Monday’s peak by the close on Friday was 4%.
And prices for hard coking coal have wiped out the discount to 62% Fe iron ore that had existed for August. Hard coking coal trades for more than $US134 a tonne, around $US10 a tonne above than 62% Fe ore.
