Commodities enjoyed a bright start to the year, with oil bouncing above US$83 and sugar striking a 29-year high as traders eyed recovery hopes despite poor US jobs data.
“We have been highlighting for some time that there is still considerable upside risk to commodity prices in early 2010,” Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish said in a research note to clients.
Markets tailed off somewhat on Friday as traders digested news that the US, a major consumer of raw materials, shed more jobs than expected last month.
OIL: The market jumped in the first trading week of the year, largely because of a cold snap across the northern hemisphere which boosted heating fuel demand but players pared gains after a downbeat US jobs report.
New York crude topped US$83 on Wednesday for the first time in 14 months before closing lower on Thursday for the first time in 10 sessions as traders banked profits.
Oil begun the year with a bang on Monday, soaring by more than US$2 as freezing temperatures spread. Reports that Russia had cut supplies to Belarus also helped push prices higher, but officials in Belarus later denied the reports.
Gains for oil tailed off toward the end of the week in the wake of the latest US energy inventory data and the downbeat US non-farm payrolls report.
By late on Friday, New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, rallied to US$82.22 a barrel from US$79.36 on Thursday of the previous week.
London’s Brent North Sea crude for next month advanced to US$81.05 from US$77.93.
PRECIOUS METALS: Platinum and palladium prices soared to equal recent highs after the US launch of exchange traded funds (ETFs) for both metals.
Platinum rallied as high as US$1,578 per ounce, the best level since August 2008 while palladium hit US$434.25 an ounce, the best since July that year.
By Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold rose to US$1,126.75 an ounce, from US$1,104 the previous Thursday before the New Year holiday break.
Silver soared to US$18.12 an ounce from US$16.99.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum soared to US$1,569 an ounce from US$1,466.
Palladium jumped to US$431 an ounce from US$402.
BASE METALS: Base metals diverged but copper hit multi-month highs on news of a strike in key producer Chile which was later settled.
Copper struck US$7,796 per tonne on Thursday, its highest level since August 2008.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months jumped to US$7,525 a tonne from US$7,408 on Thursday the previous week.
SUGAR: Sugar prices scaled 29-year highs, lifted by predictions of lower output in emerging economic giant India.
By Friday on the New York Board of Trade, the price of unrefined sugar for March rose to US$0.2814 a pound from US$0.2724 on Thursday the previous week.
On LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, the price of a tonne of white sugar for delivery in March climbed to £730.30 from £706.30.
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