NS: Oil Gains as Dollar Weakens, Gold Rises as Safe Haven Allure Persists
Oil is on the rise in early morning trade as the dollar weakened against the euro and business confidence in Germany inched up. Nevertheless, crude prices are seen to be range-bound amid continued concerns about global downside risks.
Gold, meanwhile, is continuing to gain strength as its allure as a safe haven appears to not have faced any significant opposition.
At 0755 ET, Brent crude is up 0.2% at $78.25 a barrel, while light sweet crude is up 0.2% at $75.31 a barrel, and natural gas is down 0.1% at $4.02 a million British thermal units.
Gold is up 0.3% at $1,300.10 an ounce, while silver is up 0.9% to $21.40 an ounce, and copper is up 0.5% a pound.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( PBR ), better known as Petrobras, succeeded in raising about $70 billion by selling 2.4 billion common shares at 29.65 reais each and 1.87 preferred stock at 26.30 reais each. The world's largest share sale is expected to help the company develop offshore oil fields.
Korea National Oil Corp (KOILC) has taken over Dana Petroleum plc (DNX) through its $2.6 billion hostile takeover bid of the British group.
A former commodities trading head at BP plc ( BP ) Quek Chin Thean told a Singapore court that there was an atmosphere of fear at the oil giant, which led him to back up e-mails and documents at work. Quek and five others have been sued by BP for misuing confidential corporate information.
Shares in mining companies, meanwhile, could outpace the rise of gold prices as record precious metal prices will lead profits to surge, according to Bloomberg. Barrick Gold Corp ( ABX ), Newmont Mining Corp ( NEM ), and Goldcorp Inc ( GG ) are those named by Tocqueville Asset Management's John Hathaway.
