Submitted by Tom Madison on June 8, 2011 - 12:14am. Business | Business News | Investing | News (Best Syndication News) Nearly all energy and precious metals were higher with the exception of gold (see commodities charts below). Silver and light sweet crude were higher, but Brent crude was lower. Precious Metals August gold on the COMEX settled down $3.90 (-0.25%) to $1,543.30 a troy ounce (see survey #2 settle price below). The golden metal has advanced seven of the last ten days. Economic worries have sent investors to the safe haven, but now there may be some good economic news. Reports suggest that the European Central Bank (ECB) is closer to extending approval for Greek bond rollovers. The ECB may encourage investors to purchase new bonds as the old ones mature, according to Bloomberg. Yesterday Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, told the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee that a default by Greece would cost the German taxpayer “at least €40 billion”. July silver prices continued to climb Tuesday, settling up 26 cents (+0.72%) to $37.05 an ounce. Platinum and palladium were higher. In Tokyo, Silver was unchanged but gold, platinum and platinum were all lower early Wednesday. See the Tokyo Commodity Exchange chart below. Energy Prices Light sweet crude oil for July delivery advanced 8 cents (+0.08%) to $99.09 a barrel. There is speculation that OPEC will raise their output quotas at their 159th meeting in Vienna Austria. Natural gas was unchanged, but is still at a 100-day high. Heating oil and ethanol were higher slightly. Coal prices were up $1.45 (+1.88%) to $78.42 per ton. In Tokyo, crude oil was down 1.08 percent. That works out to $107.45 a barrel. Agriculture Futures Coffee, cocoa, and sugar were all higher on the CSCE (NYMEX) Wednesday (see survey #1 below). Soybeans were lower but wheat futures were higher. Learn hogs were up 3.48 percent to 89.73 cents per pound. Feeder cattle and live cattle were also higher. See the chart below for more details. By: Tom Madison

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