Copper slipped while gold and oil climbed higher on Friday, as commodities headed for their strongest monthly performance since mid-2008, but slumping demand continued to haunt investors. Commodity prices were hammered in 2008, as the global recession deepened and knocked down demand for the whole complex, particularly industrial metals. But in January, London copper futures have climbed nearly 3 percent so far, and headed for their first monthly rise since June 2008. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index, down 4.1 percent this month, was on course for its smallest fall since June. Oil was only down 6.8 percent from December, its smallest monthly percentage fall since prices began tumbling off a record high near $150 in June. Gold has scored around a 4.5 percent gain after rising nearly 8 percent in December. But still analysts believed the market could test new lows. "Even though the price action is starting to look a little bit promising we're not convinced," said Jesper Dannesboe, senior commodity strategist at Societe Generale. "We think we could see new lows." To find out more clues about the state of the economy, investors will be watching the release of advance U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product data due on Friday. Thursday's dismal figures -- record U.S. jobless rates, an all-time low for sales of new U.S. single-family homes and a fifth monthly decline in durable manufactured goods orders -- all weighed on markets. But the deteriorating outlook and volatility in other markets helped gold prices. Spot gold climbed to a high of $926.10 an ounce, and was quoted at $919.00/920.60 an ounce at 1220 GMT, up from $906.75 in New York late on Thursday. Gold priced in euros hit a record high of 720.53 euros. "Gold is profiting from a renewed rise in risk aversion, as equity markets plunged following disappointing economic data from the U.S.," Eugen Weinberg, commodities analyst at Commerzbank said in a research. LITTLE HELP Oil firmed modestly on Friday after a nearly 2 percent fall on another round of grim U.S. economic data the previous day. U.S. crude was up 16 cents a barrel at $41.60, while London Brent crude gained 73 cents to $46.13. "There is little to help push prices higher until the impact of OPEC's production cuts hit U.S. import figures in the coming weeks," analysts at J.P. Morgan said in their Global Energy Strategy weekly report. Also, ballooning inventories continue to worry investors. Shrinking demand for fuel has contributed to the biggest four-month build-up in U.S. crude stockpiles since 1990. Stocks of London Metal Exchange copper jumped 22,750 tonnes, the biggest single-day rise since August 2004, to 477,675 tonnes. Copper prices slipped around 3 percent to $3,145 a tonne, while aluminium fell 1.6 percent as stocks of the light metal climbed to record high around 2.8 million tonnes. Worries about shrinking demand from China, the world's largest consumer of industrial metals, also weighed on prices. The world's third-largest economy is expected to grow between 7 and 8 percent this year, the World Bank's chief economist said on Wednesday, compared with the 9 percent pace for 2008 which was the slowest in seven years. "The risk is still clearly on the downside. The economic data is going to confirm that things are still slowing down," said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne.

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