Gold, silver, copper, and nickel led metal prices lower on Friday and last week, joining with oil to push the commodities complex lower.
Only iron ore resisted with a sharp reversal of the previous week’s losses thanks to BHP’s Pilbara rail and shipping problems.
Chinese 62% iron ore prices rose 1.2% on Friday to $US77.20 a tonne, the highest for nearly 8 months. That took the week’s rebound for nearly 4.4%.
But that was an outlier.
Comex gold prices fell on Friday to settle at their lowest in about a month, down 2% for the week. Comex silver lost 4%, Comex copper fell nearly 5% last week, nickel hit 11-month lows and LME copper had its worst week since August.
December gold fell $US16.50, or nearly 1.4%, to settle at $US1,208.60 an ounce in New York, the lowest finish since October 10 according to US data group, FactSet.
Comex silver fell 2% on Friday to $US141.14 an ounce and a loss of more than 4% for the week, while Comex copper dropped more than 2% on Friday to end at just over$US2.68 an ounce, for a weekly drop of 4.95%.
In London LME nickel slumped to its lowest price in nearly 11 months on Friday and copper had its biggest weekly drop since mid-August.
Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange lost 2.7% at $US11,460 a tonne, its lowest since December 15 last year.
Three-month LME copper fell 1.6% to finish at $6,056 a tonne and had its biggest weekly loss since the week to August 17 with a fall of over 3%. Prices for lead, zinc, and aluminum also fell.
