Commodities: Oil and gold pushed lower by stronger dollar

Date: Friday 06 Jul 2012

Oil ended the day lower on Thursday, pushed into decline by a strong dollar and concerns about the global economy, as central banks in Europe and China took action to boost growth.

Although there was positive news from the Energy Information Administration, which reported crude supplies were down by 4.3m barrels during the week ended June 29th, the effect proved short-lived and the futures contract for August delivery of oil fell 0.5%, or $0.44, to end the day at $87.22 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The dollar was given a boost after the European Central Bank (ECB) cut its key interest rate from 1% to 0.75% in a bid to energise struggling Eurozone economies, while the bank's deposit rate - the rate of return banks get for leaving money with the ECB overnight - will be cut to zero.

Meanwhile, heating oil rose 0.36% to $2.77 per gallon, natural gas climbed 1.59% to $2.94 per million British thermal units, and unleaded gas settled up 1.54% at $2.76 per gallon, all for August delivery.

Things were looking considerably less rosy in metals, with gold down 0.76% at $1,609.40 per troy ounce on the August contract after being pressured lower by a stronger dollar.

September delivery for silver settled down 2.15% at $27.67 per troy ounce, while platinum lost 0.92% to end the day at $1,477.7 and copper declined 1.48% at $3.49 per pound.

NR

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