Most precious and industrial metals rose Wednesday, building on recent gains as the dollar extended its losses. Gold prices, however, finished slightly lower as investors collected some profits.
Prices were supported by the dollar's ongoing weakness; the greenback fell slightly against the euro and the British pound Wednesday.
Commodities are priced in U.S. dollars, so they become more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is down.
Commodities traders seemed little fazed by the day's mix of economic data.
A reading indicating weakness in the services sector offset a report showing an unexpected increase in factory orders.
Metals and other commodities have been rallying over the past month, mirroring big gains in the stock market as improving economic data and earnings reports gave investors hope that demand for basic materials will pick up by the end of the year.
But analysts are anticipating that the market will cool off in the near future, and they say it may have gotten ahead of itself considering the economy's slow rate of recovery.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, September silver rose 6.5 cents to $14.76 an ounce, while October platinum added $16.30 to $1,293.10 an ounce.
Over the past week, silver has risen 11.3 percent, while platinum is up 10.3 percent. September copper futures rose 1.65 cents to $2.8120 a pound.
Copper is up 13.5 percent since July 29. Gold for December delivery dipped $3.40 to $966.30 an ounce.
David Beahm, vice president of economic research at Blanchard & Co., a precious metals investment firm, said investors were likely taking some profits off the table in light of gold's recent advance.
Prices have risen nearly 4 percent in just five trading sessions.
Oil prices hovered near $72 a barrel, after dipping below $70 earlier Wednesday.
Prices have climbed from below $63 a barrel last week on the hopes that energy demand would soon rebound amid signs the economy was improving.
Some of the market's recent optimism was tempered Wednesday after the Energy Department said crude inventories rose by nearly 2 million barrels last week.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 55 cents to settle at $71.97 a barrel on the Nymex.
Gasoline futures fell half a cent to settle at $2.0512 a gallon, while heating oil futures rose just more than half a cent to settle at $1.9569 a gallon.
Grain prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade.
September wheat futures fell 13.5 cents to $5.5675 a bushel, and corn for September delivery fell 7.5 cents to $3.47 a bushel.
November soybeans rose 1.35 cents to $1.045 a bushel.
No comments:
Post a Comment