Oil prices slipped on Friday while gold consolidated below the $950 level and base metals staged a broad retreat amid elevated levels and risk aversion.
There was ongoing concerns about the outlook for the global economy after Japan reported a record monthly drop in industrial production in January.
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In energy markets, ICE April Brent fell 65 cents to $45.86 a barrel, moving between a low of $45.12 and a high of $46.48.
Nymex April West Texas Intermediate lost $1.12 at $44.10 a barrel.
“With Opec crude oil supply falling by more than oil demand, we expect global inventories to decline and prices to recover,” said Eugen Weinberg at Commerzbank.
Mr Weinberg said that reports that the United Arab Emirates had notified its customers in Asia of delivery cuts in April of as much as five percentage points compared with March was helping fuel speculation that Opec might again lower its production quotas at the next meeting in March.
Gold traded flat at $944.50 a troy ounce, moving between a low of $937.35 and a high of $946.80, after ending trading in New York on Thursday at $944.50.
The SPDR Gold Trust, the largest physically backed ETF, reported a modest increase of 0.31m tonnes in its gold holdings on thursday which had remained static earlier in the week. Inflows into other gold ETFs have registered little material change this week and analysts are concerned that the pause in investor buying interest has left the market vulnerable to further weakness, particularly as jewellery demand remains poor.
India, the world’s largest gold jewellery market, has not imported any gold so far in February compared with imports of 23m tonnes in the same month last year.
The Indian rupee has fallen to a record low against the dollar, pushing gold prices even higher for domestic Indian jewellery makers.
Among the base metals, copper slipped 1.8 per cent to $3,445 a tonne while aluminium fell 1.5 per cent to $1,345 a tonne.
