Written by Sumit Roy  |

September 25, 2012

Market Wrap: Gold Steadies, Brent Rises After Consumer Confidence Hits Highest Since Feb., Home Prices Increase

Details

Commodities traded mixed.

Commodities were mixed, as traders continued to await the next major catalyst to send prices in either direction. Today's economic data was positive. The Case-Shiller home price index grew by 1.2 percent year-over-year in July, up from the prior month's 0.59 percent. That's the second-straight month of year-over-year gains, and suggests that the housing market may be turning the corner.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index unexpectedly rose from 61.3 to 70.3 in September—the highest level since February.

The U.S. Dollar Index fell fractionally to 79.47.

• Gold edged down by $0.95, or 0.05 percent, to $1763.50, while silver shed $0.16, or 0.46 percent, to $33.84.
  
  Platinum advanced $13.75, or 0.85 percent, to $1635.50 and palladium fell by $4.50, or 0.7 percent, to $640.25.
  
  "We still prefer to be buying gold on dips and believe the break higher will eventually come. But the futures market needs to lose some speculative length and the physical market needs to adjust to a higher price-range first," Walter de Wet, analyst at Standard Bank, said.
  
  
• Crude oil traded mixed today. Brent was last trading up by $0.83, or 0.76 percent, to $110.66, while WTI sagged $0.30, or 0.33 percent, to $91.63.
  
  "Iran has been supporting [Brent] prices today after the hostile rhetoric yesterday and over the weekend," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, analyst at VTB Capital. "U.S. data is supportive in the short term."
  
  
• Natural gas was last trading up by $0.06, or 2.11 percent, to $2.90/mmbtu. Most analysts expect the EIA to report an injection in the 60 to 80 billion cubic feet range in this Thursday's inventory report.
  
  
• Grains were narrowly mixed, as corn fell by $0.02, or 0.3 percent, to $7.43/bushel, while soybeans edged up by $0.01, or 0.03 percent, to $16.11 and wheat edged lower by $0.09, or 0.98 percent, to $8.83.
  
  "I don't see the market treading lower and lower, I think there is some more upside potential as supplies are very tight," said Abah Ofon, analyst at Standard Chartered Bank.
  
  
• Copper was last trading up by $0.03, or 0.75 percent, to $3.77/lb on Comex.
  
  "People feel you have to see a real improvement in data in order to justify this rally so if you don't get that real improvement the bias for copper will be to retrace part of the move," said Credit Suisse metals analyst Ivan Szpakowski. "I don't think the physical demand is there at all right now so you are really trading off the macro data and announcements."