Oil futures ended lower on Friday, while gold faded as the investor-focus on more riskier investments ran out of puff.
Currencies were mixed as well, bond yields were a touch weaker, shares ended higher but faded on Friday as well. In London, Brent oil futures slid $1.27, or 3.7%, to end at $US33.01 a barrel.
That loss wiped out the gains from the first four days of trading and Brent futures lost 1.1% over the week. In New York a slightly different story with West Texas Intermediate futures, also losing 3.7% (or $1.13) to end the week on under $US30 a barrel at $US29.64 a barrel.
Unlike Brent there was something left over after the fall on Friday and US oil ended the week with a gain of 0.7%.
Oil futures saw little movement after oil-services firm Baker Hughes said the number of oil US rigs in use fell 26 to 439. A year ago the number of oil rigs in use was more than 1,040. That news would have normally been bullish, but not on Friday.
There was little enthusiasm for oil left at week’s end from a week ago when prices jumped sharply (and continued to rise earlier in the week) after news broke about of an attempt at freezing Opec production.
Four major oil producers – Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela—proposed a collective production freeze at the January levels.
But Iran and Iraq have refused to join. Iran is determined to lift its production and regain lost market share after the international sanctions against Tehran were lifted in January. Saudi Arabia’s finance minister ended any lingering support for the idea by saying on Thursday said his country wasn’t prepared to cut production.
Underscoring that the world is awash in crude, data from the US Energy Information Administration last Thursday revealed domestic crude stockpiles rose by 2.1 million barrels last week to a new record weekly record of 504.1 million barrels.
US oil production also stayed resilient, at around 9.1 million barrels a day, down 600,000 barrels a day from the peak of 9.7 million reached last April.
Meanwhile, Comex gold futures ended higher Friday, but saw their first weekly loss in about a month as the big surge in the early part of last week, was popped late in the week.
April gold futures rose $US4.50 or 0.4%, to settle at $US1,230.80 an ounce, but lost 0.7% over the week. Comex March silver was off 5.9 cents, or 0.4% on Friday, to end the week at $US15.373 an ounce. For the week, the metal’s price fell around 2.5%, and that was also the first weekly dip in a month.
Comex copper futures for March delivery finished 0.3 cents, or 0.1%, higher at $US2.0765 a pound. That was a rare weekly rise of 2.4% gain.
