The improved confidence across markets helped oil and copper but undermined gold and silver.
The news that China and the US plan to restart trade talks and improved optimism about the health of the US economy helped improve investor sentiment early on but the weak August jobs data and poor German factory data left an uncertain end to the week.
Oil futures reversed direction to finish higher on Friday, with a third consecutive weekly fall in the number of active US rigs drilling for oil helping US futures to firm.
The fall in the rig count from Baker Hughes came after the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly report revealed a third week of falling domestic crude supplies.
Baker Hughes reported on Friday reported that the number of active US oil rigs fell by four to 738 last week.
That’s the lowest weekly figure since November 2017. A year ago there were 860 active oil rigs across the US. More than 30 rigs have been taken out of work in the past three weeks alone.
The data followed a third-straight weekly decline in US crude stocks. On Thursday, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US oil stocks fell 4.8 million barrels for the week ended August 30. US production was estimated at 12.4 million barrels, down 100,000 barrels.
As a result, the US marker, West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery rose 22 cents, or 0.4%, settle at $US56.52 a barrel in New York. That left a gain of 2% for the week.
The global benchmark, November Brent crude rose 59 US cents, or 1%, to end at $US 61.54 a barrel in Europe for a weekly rise of 3.9%.
Gold and silver futures though fell on Friday on the uptick in sentiment.
Helped by settled upbeat comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the US economy, gold and silver sold off.
Prices had been rising before Powell spoke on Friday, finding support after the US jobs report for August was weaker than expected with only 130,000 new jobs created, 96,000 from the private sector.
The increase in new jobs fell well short of the 170,000 market forecasts.
In a speech Friday, however, Powell was sanguine about the strength of the US jobs market, saying the figures were OK.
He also said the outlook for the economy remains favorable and the Federal Reserve is “not forecasting or expecting a recession.”
Comex December gold fell $US10, or 0.7%, to settle at $US1,515.50 an ounce, after trading as high as $1,536.20. For the week, the most-active contract fell about 0.9%, according to FactSet.
Gold plunged 2.2% on Thursday to settle at a two-week low, marking their biggest single-session percentage decline since June last year, and largest daily dollar loss since Nov. 11, 2016, according to Dow Jones.
Meanwhile, December Comex silver lost 68.8 cents, or 3.7%, to $US18.119 an ounce, for a 1.2% loss over the week. Silver joined gold in a big fall on Thursday, shedding 3.8% the largest one-day dollar and percentage fall in more than a year.
Meanwhile, December Comex copper lost 0.3% to $US2.634 a pound, ending the week 3.2% higher thanks to the latest uptick in optimism about the state of the trade war with China.
October platinum lost 0.5% to $US958.50 an ounce, for a weekly rise of 2.9%, and December palladium shed 1.1% to $US1,544.70 an ounce, up 0.4% over the week.
