Commodities markets summary
Market watch top headlines
Australian reports
- Aust markets: Aust stocks close lower
- Aust dollar report: $A finishes the day higher
- Aust credit close: Aust bonds weaker
World reports
- World commodities: Commodities markets summary
- World markets: International markets roundup
AAP
2012-08-01
A summary of trading in key commodities markets overseas:
ENERGY
Oil prices Have slid as the US Federal Reserve's policymakers held a meeting expected to discuss whether to boost the US economy, the world's biggest consumer of crude.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September, on Tuesday shed $US1.72 to $US88.06 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September dropped $US1.28 to $US104.92 a barrel in London trading.
Crude markets were waiting to see if additional stimulus would be agreed during the two-day Fed meeting that concludes Wednesday, as well as at a gathering of European Central Bank policy makers on Thursday, analysts said.
PRECIOUS METALS
Gold futures have fallen for the first time in five trading sessions, as investors pare their bets on higher gold prices ahead of closely watched policy announcements from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB).
The most actively traded gold contract, for December delivery, fell $US9.40, or 0.6 per cent, to settle at $US1,614.60 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
September silver closed at $US27.914, down 11.9 US cents; October platinum finished at $US1,416.90, up $US5.10; September palladium ended at $US590.55, up $US2.20.
BASE METALS
Base metals have closed mostly lower on the London Metal Exchange (LME), with the complex drifting sideways as investors awaited cues from the macro arena.
At the PM kerb close on Tuesday, LME three-month copper was up 0.2 per cent at $US7,559 a metric ton. Nickel fell the most, down 2.3 per cent at $US15,865/ton.
This week sees key policy meetings by the US Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and the European Central Bank (ECB).
While investors will be eyeing the FOMC meeting for quantitative easing clues, hopes are high that the ECB will introduce some form of policy easing to ease stresses in the euro zone.
Most significant for base metals will be Chinese purchasing managers' index manufacturing data, set for release on Wednesday.
