Gold Ends Higher Supported by Oil, Middle East

Ivaylo
07 Feb, 2001
New York City

Cold weather in the US helped rise the demand of fuel which in turn supported precious metals. The continuing tensions over Iran also aided the market. Gold added $7 to finish at a two-day high and silver hit a seven-week high in intraday. Platinum and palladium also advanced although they remained range-bound. Copper managed to overcome its sell-off on Friday and advanced modestly. Crude oil touched $60, but came off that level. Both Arabica coffee and raw sugar futures lost on Tuesday.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver gain Tuesday on oil climb and Middle East concerns.[/R]
The most-active April gold advanced $2.60 to end at $658.70 a troy ounce at the New York Mercantile Exchange, after reaching $663.70 an ounce earlier in the session. March silver gained 11.5 cents to end at $13.675 an ounce, after hitting a seven-week high of $13.88. April platinum added $18.60 to $1,190.30 an ounce and March palladium ended $1.70 higher at $344.05. The most-active March copper contract also moved 8 cents higher to close at $2.4965 per pound.

The front-month March crude oil contract advanced 14 cents to close at $58.88 a barrel, after hitting $59.99 earlier. March heating oil added 1.53 cents to finish at $1.6909 a gallon and March gasoline advanced 1.26 cents to settle at $1.5725 a gallon while natural gas for delivery in March lost 1.8 cents to end at $7.616 per million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, March Arabica coffee futures slipped 0.10 cent to close at $1.1650 a pound and March futures of raw sugar in foreign ports declined 0.29 cent to settle at 10.19 cents a pound.