Gold Soars As Crude Gains

Ivaylo
06 Oct, 2001
New York City

The stronger tone of the oil market encouraged profit-taking in the metals, thus raising their prices. Some short sellers also may have been squaring positions before U.S. monthly jobs report on Friday, which can influence the dollar and, in this way, the direction of metals. Physical demand for gold has been good, especially on this sell-off. Funds had been liquidating long positions for some time now in both gold and silver.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver futures firmed up supported by oil prices.[/R]
December gold gained $8.80 to finish at $575.50 a troy ounce on the NTME. December silver added 27.5 cents to close at $11.07 an ounce. January platinum advanced $3.80 to settle at $1,086.20 an ounce. December palladium moved up $4.50 to end at $301.15 an ounce. December copper rose 9.45 cents to settle at $3.30 per pound.

The front-month November light, sweet crude oil contract settled 62 cents, or 1%, higher at $60.03 a barrel. November heating oil added 1.5 cents to close at $1.692 a gallon. Front-month November unleaded gasoline finished 1.87 cents stronger at $1.5165 a gallon. Natural gas for November delivery added 30.3 cents to finish at $6.298 per million British thermal units.

Arabica coffee ended slightly firmer, with the December contracts closing 0.05 cents higher at $1.0450 a pound. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports closed mixed, with the March contracts settling 0.02 cents lower at 11.14 cents a pound. Cotton futures slipped amid speculative sales, and the most-active December contract finished 0.47 cents lower at 49.69 cents per pound. On the Chicago Board of Trade, soybean futures closed higher with help from speculative buying. November soybeans finished 10.25 cents higher at $5.6550 a bushel.