Precious Metals Sustain Advance

Ivaylo
29 Dec, 2001
New York City

Gold and silver settled higher on Thursday for a fourth session in a row, aided by a mixture of lower dollar and higher oil prices in the wake of economic data showing a larger-than-anticipated depletion in crude supplies in the latest week. Entering into 2007, the expectations are of rising volatility and uncertainty, enough to cause concern for gold and silver to become safe haven assets in their own right.

[R]5:00 AM Gold and silver end higher on Thursday, supported by weaker dollar.[/R]
At settlement, the top-traded February gold contract gained $6.60 to close at $636.90 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. March silver advanced 1.5 cents to end at $12.94 an ounce, after fund buying combined with selling at the high levels to keep the advance contained. January platinum added 50 cents to finish at $1,116.20 an ounce, while March palladium dipped 95 cents to close at $327.95 an ounce. March copper shed 1.9 cents to end at $2.8950 a pound.

On the Nymex, crude oil futures gained slightly following a report that displayed a surprisingly large fall in U.S. crude stocks. The February crude oil contract advanced 19 cents to $60.53 a barrel. January heating oil was up 1.43 cents to close at $1.6231 a gallon, and January unleaded gasoline slipped 0.54 cents to finish at $1.5821 a gallon. Natural gas for delivery in February added 10.6 cents to $6.248 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, Arabica coffee futures closed sharply down after an intraday rise attempt was thwarted by producer selling, year-end profit-booking and book-squaring. March coffee ended 3.9 cents lower at $1.2500 a pound, near the bottom of the trading range of the day of $1.2450 a pound to $1.2975 a pound.

Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports ended slightly higher. The market was aided by speculative and local buying, but producer and trade selling curtailed the ascent. March sugar futures ended 0.07 cents higher at 11.86 cents a pound.