Gold Gains on Short-Covering

Ivaylo
21 May, 2007
New York City

Short covering sent gold and silver futures higher on Friday recovering some of the ground they lost earlier in the week. Crude oil settled higher, bucking the downtrend in the energy stocks. Arabica coffee and raw sugar also finished lower, while cocoa advanced. Wheat plunged as prices got caught in a seasonal slump heading into harvest.

[R]5:30AM Gold and silver finish higher on Friday, while energy stocks end mostly lower.[/R]

June gold advanced $4.80 at $662 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange with July silver also gaining 12 cents to end at $13.003. July platinum settled up $8.30 at $1,326.20 an ounce, while June palladium added $4.85 to finish at $365.25 an ounce. The most-active July copper contract rose 1.70 cents to settle at $3.3235 per pound.

June crude oil bucked the downtrend in energy stocks and added 8 cents to close at $64.94 a barrel. June gasoline settled down 2.89 cents at $2.4077 a gallon. June heating oil finished down 2.15 cents at $1.9152 a gallon and June natural gas also ended down 13.1 cents at $7.944 per million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, July Arabica coffee futures declined 1.30 cents to stop at $1.1180 a pound, with September off 1.30 cents at $1.1460. Most-active July cocoa added $53 to settle at $1,947 per metric ton. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for July ended down 0.05 cent at 8.63 cents a pound, with October off 0.09 cent at 8.92 cents.

On the Chicago Board of Trade, corn futures finished lower across the board. July corn ended 1.75-cent lower at $3.7125 per bushel, and December closed 4 cents lower at $3.6650. July soybeans settled 0.25-cent lower at $7.9250 per bushel, and November soybeans ended unchanged at $8.2125. July wheat tumbled 14.25 cents to $4.7125 per bushel.