Oil jumped – Brent crude futures hitting two year plus highs – and gold jumped sharply in trading on Monday – and Wall Street sold off as Apple shares weakened for yet another session.
Crude-oil prices settled sharply higher Monday, lifting Brent crude – the global marker price – to a more than two-year high and West Texas Intermediate crude into a bull market and its highest finish in about five months
Prices found support, with WTI now up by more than 20% from its lows in June to meet the definition of a bull market.
October West Texas Intermediate crude rose $US1.56, or 3.1%, to settle at $52.22 a barrel in New York. That was the highest settlement price since mid-April and prices are now 22% above the lows seen in June.
In London, November Brent crude futures added $US2.16, or 3.8%, at $US59.02 a barrel.
That was the highest front-month contract finish since early July 2015, according to US data group, FactSet. Comex gold futures regained most of last week’s losses on Monday, ending the session up $US14 to $US1,311.50 an ounce. That was the highest finish a week ago last Friday.
Driving prices higher was the statement from North Korea that the comments from President Donald Trump had amounted to a declaration of war.
Gold rose even though the US dollar rose overnight – the Aussie dollar dipped under 79.40 US cents.
Comex December silver rose 1% to $17.147 an ounce but Comex December copper shed 0.2% to $US2.938 a pound. The Metal Bulletin iron ore price fell again – losing 50 cents a tonne to end at $US63.06 a tonne overnight for 62% fe ore delivered to northern China.
On Wall Street Apple shares lost another 0.9%, sliding towards the $US150 mark which would be the lowest in nearly two months.
That saw the Dow fall for a third straight session, as Apple shared ended at $US150,55. The Dow lost 53 points or 0.24%, the S&P 500 fell 5.5 points or 0.22%, while the Nasdaq shed 56 points or 0.88%.
