A bad night for commodities on world markets, thanks to stronger economic news from the US which drove the value of the US dollar higher.
Gold, oil copper, iron ore and grains prices dropped, some sharply.
For Australia another drop in the price of iron ore was the big news.
The price of iron ore has slumped to an equal five-year low, falling 0.5% overnight to $US86.70 per metric tonne.
Investment bank CLSA forecast the price to fall to $US75 a tonne in a year’s time in a report released overnight.
The price of spot gold dropped by 1.6% to an eleven week low of $US1,263.10 an ounce before closing at $US1,265.
Brent oil suffered a 2.4% drop to $US100.45 a barrel and threatens to dip under the key $US100 a barrel level.
West Texas intermediate prices in New York tumbled by nearly $US3 a barrel to around $US93.26.
And US copper futures dipped 0.2% to $US3.15 in New York.
Analysts pointed out the weakness about the strength of the Eurozone economy (which seems to have come to a shuddering halt) and rising fears of deflation, had a greater impact on oil prices than the rise in the US dollar and good US manufacturing activity.
Locally, shares are poised to open unchanged ahead of the latest reading on Australian economic growth after Wall Street closed mixed in narrow trade.
The Dow fell 30 points, the S&P 500 shed one point, but the Nasdaq rose 18 points in the first day of trading after the Labour Day weekend holiday.
The S&P 500 ended at 2,0002, which some market analysts reckons was a bullish point for the market.
Others said that the closing level didn’t matter at all and the weakness in commodity prices, allied to strong results in the August survey of US manufacturing were more important factors in the mix.
