Oil prices should ease today after the storm threatening the Gulf Of Mexico fields, especially the BP oil disaster, eased at the weekend.
As Tropical Storm Bonnie eased to just an area of low pressure over the Gulf of Mexico, a drilling rig and other ships that had been working to repair BP’s blown-out oil well, returned to the well area to continue clean-up and control operations that were suspended Friday.
Bonnie’s appearance pushed US oil futures prices above $US79 a barrel Friday, an 11 week high.
But the seemingly good results from the European bank stress tests knocked support for oil (and other commodities in late trading) and oil ended down 32c a barrel on the day at $US79.98 on Nymex.
For the week the front month futures price was up 3.9%.
Around 30% of Gulf Of Mexico producing facilities was shut Friday because of Bonnie. They started re-opening yesterday.
Meanwhile, gold prices traded sideways all week and ended with a tiny loss of around 0.1% after losing $US7.80 an ounce in New York to close at $US1,187 an ounce.
Gold was easier for most of Friday, although it tended to steady after the European stress test results were released.
Spot gold in New York ended around $US1,187.05 an ounce, against $US1,195.35 in New York on Thursday.
Earlier it climbed as high as $US1,203.45 on optimism about the US economy and corporate earnings.
Gold fell for a second straight week (less than 1%, though) as prices still failed to break out of a broad range between $US1,180 and $US1,220.
A stronger US dollar against the euro for much of the week helped cap gold.
And the other commodity bellwether, copper, rose for a fifth day on Friday.
It was the best week’s gains since February as traders ignored softening demand from China and focused on the continuing fall in official stocks.
Stockpiles overseen by the London Metal Exchange have dropped for 22 straight weeks, the longest slide since 2004.
Chinese stocks are falling as well.
September Comex copper futures rose 2USc on Friday to end at $US3.185 a pound in New York.
That was a gain for the week overall of 8.7%, the best since the week ending February 19, according to data from Bloomberg.
The rise has trimmed copper’s fall in 2010 to just 4.8% as at the close on Friday.
In London, LME copper for three month delivery rose $US19 a tonne to $US7,029 a tonne, or around $US3.19 a pound.
Nickel, tin and lead prices also climbed. Aluminum and zinc fell.
In fact tin prices jumped 9.5% in London last week off the back of fears about supplies from Indonesia.
On the LME, three month tin hit an intraday day high of $US19,750 a tonne on Friday, the highest in nearly two years.
