Commodity prices mostly recovered this week on easing worries about the eurozone debt crisis, with cocoa striking a 32-year high level.
“Commodity prices have picked up in recent days in the wake of the rather indiscriminate selling that dragged prices lower in recent weeks,” Barclays Capital analyst Sudakshina Unnikrishnan said.
OIL: Oil prices rallied back above US$75 this week, boosted by signs of higher demand for energy, traders said, and after dropping close to 10-month lows one week earlier.
“Oil prices continue to rise as the focus on fundamentals returns, with OECD oil demand and in particular US oil demand improving markedly,” Barclays Capital analyst Amrita Senator said.
Oil prices began spiking on Wednesday, with sentiment lifted by recovering stock markets and fresh data pointing to a sustained economic recovery in the key US energy market.
A report by the US Department of Energy showed an unexpected dip in US gasoline supplies of 200,000 barrels. Distillate stocks, including diesel and heating oil, fell 300,000 barrels in the week ending May 21.
Oil built on Wednesday’s gains by surging more than US$2 on Thursday as the euro rebounded against the US dollar and global stock markets bounced higher, traders said.
By late Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Texas light sweet crude for delivery in July surged to US$74.58 a barrel from US$70.02 a week earlier.
On London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for July delivery soared to US$74.63, compared with US$71.72.
PRECIOUS METALS: Prices recovered after sharp losses a week earlier. By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold prices rallied to US$1,218.47 an ounce from US$1,179.75 the previous week.
Silver rose to US$18.53 an ounce from US$17.72.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum climbed to US$1,555 an ounce from US$1,492.
Palladium increased to US$471 an ounce from US$419.
COCOA: Cocoa futures struck the highest level in 32 years in London, at £2,451 a tonne.
“Ghana’s poor harvest ... adjoins the weak performance in the Ivory Coast, where we have seen port arrivals down 3.7 percent year-on-year up to mid-May,” Barclays Capital analysts said in a research note.
By Friday on London’s futures exchange the price of cocoa for delivery in July jumped to £2,437 a tonne from £2,317 the previous week.
On the NYBOT, the July cocoa contract grew to US$2,985 a tonne from US$2,896.
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