Commodity prices slid in the past week on heightened concerns over European sovereign debt amid a likely bailout for Ireland while Chinese steps to tackle soaring inflation also weighed.
OIL: Prices tumbled as traders fretted over European sovereign debt, a stronger US dollar and Chinese plans to fight inflation.
The oil market also fell this week on profit-taking, after hitting two-year peaks last week on the back of a weaker dollar and the prospect of a strong global economic recovery.
Traders meanwhile shrugged off news that US crude inventories plunged by 7.3 million barrels in the week to Nov. 12. That was the biggest weekly drop for 15 months and much weaker than forecasts of a 100,000-barrel decline.
By late Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January stood at US$84.11 a -barrel compared with US$87.86 for the now-expired contract for next month a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, Texas light sweet crude for next month dropped to US$81.20 from US$86.62.
BASE METALS: Prices hit two-month lows, one week after copper soared to a record US$8,966 a tonne on supportive Chinese economic data, tight global supplies and strikes in key producer Chile.
Tin had also struck an all-time high the previous week.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months dropped to US$8,385 a tonne from US$8,695 a week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Prices mostly retreated one week after gold soared to a record US$1,424.60 an ounce and sister metal silver reached a 30-year peak.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold dropped to US$1,342.50 an ounce at the late fixing from US$1,388.50 a week earlier.
Silver edged up to US$27.07 an ounce from US$26.79.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum fell to US$1,650 an ounce from US$1,712.
Palladium decreased to US$695 an ounce from US$703.
SUGAR: Contracts diverged one week after soaring to multi-year highs.
“The fear of interest rate hikes in China was taken as an occasion for a substantial correction on many agricultural commodity markets,” Commerzbank analysts noted.
By Friday on the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), the price of unrefined sugar for delivery in March rose to US$0.2813 a pound from US$0.28 a week earlier.
On LIFFE — London’s futures exchange — the price of a tonne of white sugar for March stood at £710.90 (US$1,136) compared with £735 for the expired contract next month.
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