BS:Silver and Gold Prices Slump while Oil and Natural Gas Advance
(Best Syndication News) Gold and silver futures dropped in Tokyo and the United States but silver turned around later (see commodities charts below). Platinum climbs but palladium doesn’t.
Precious Metals
Both silver and gold futures fell with early strength in the dollar (see survey #2 below). August gold fell $4.60 (-0.30%) to $1,538.70 a troy ounce. Since the settle on the COMEX, gold continued to fall but the dollar has turned around against the euro.
Silver futures for July deliver fell 43 cents (-1.15%) to $35.62 a troy ounce. Since the settle on Wednesday, the price is up nearly 40 cents
There are concerns that if the Federal Reserve does not extend quantitative easing, precious metal prices will not advance further. Other factors are at play, but inflation is a major concern. A slowing economy could put upward pressure on gold and silver.
Car sales dropped off in May after pushing higher the first part of the year. Ford said sales declined 2.4 percent while General Motors said sales fell 1.2 percent. Palladium, which is used in catalytic converters, among other things, advanced 6.93 percent over the last 30-days; but dropped $3.80 (-0.47%) to $804.00 today.
Platinum for July delivery advanced 50 cents (+0.03%) to 1,831.20. Copper fell nearly one percent.
Gold and silver prices on the on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) were lower. Platinum and Palladium were higher. See the TOCOM chart below.
Energy Prices
OPEC was unable to reach an agreement at their meeting in Europe Wednesday. This means supply will likely remain level as demand continues to grow. Saudi Arabia said they will increase capacity to meet market demand. Other producers may also, if they can.
On Wednesday light sweet crude for July contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) were up $1.65 (+1.67%) to $100.74 a barrel. Brent Crude on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) advanced $2.30 (+2.01%) to $116.78.
Crude oil on the TOCOM rose 830 yen per kiloliter to ¥54,940. Converting to dollars at the current rate, the price works out to $109.04 a barrel.
July contracts for Natural gas on the NYMEX advanced again Wednesday, up 2 cents (+0.33%) to $4.847 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). The commodity is up three days in a row and four of the last five days.
