Commodity prices traded mixed this week amid caution over future demand for raw materials despite positive economic data from the US and Europe, where recession ended for some countries.
Sugar prices reached a 28-year peak, however, pushed higher by tight supplies of the commodity.
OIL: Crude prices fell from a week earlier as the market focused on the outlook for crude demand, which analysts said was not rosy despite improving economic data from around the globe.
“Brent should slip back to US$72 and eventually US$70, once the euphoria subsides,” VTB Capital commodities analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said in London.
By Friday on London’s InterContinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September dropped to US$73.74 a barrel from US$74.33 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude for September slipped to US$70.01 a barrel from US$71.43 one week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold prices edged lower. By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold fell to US$953.50 an ounce from US$956 a week earlier.
Silver gained to US$14.98 an ounce from US$14.65.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum grew to US$1,267 an ounce at the late fixing on Friday from US$1,260.
Palladium rose to US$277.50 an ounce from US$271.
BASE METALS: Copper, nickel and zinc struck multi-month highs.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months jumped to US$6,373 a tonne from US$5,969 last week.
SUGAR: Sugar prices hit a 28-year high of £589.90 a tonne in London and they also reached the highest point since 1983 in New York.
Global sugar prices are likely to stay high in the coming year as India, the world’s largest consumer of the commodity, reels from poor monsoon rains that will force it to rely on imports.
By Friday on London’s futures exchange, the price of a tonne of white sugar for delivery in October gained to £589.40 from £536 a week earlier. On the New York Board of Trade, the price of unrefined sugar for October climbed to US$0.2218 a pound (0.45kg) from US$0.2046.
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