Written by Sumit Roy  |

October 30, 2012

Market Wrap: Gold, Oil Steady Ahead Of Stock Trading Resumption; NatGas Hits 1-Year High Before Falling Back

Details

Commodities traded mixed.

Commodities traded narrowly mixed today, as traders awaited the resumption of U.S. stock markets, which were closed for a second-straight session due to cyclone Sandy. Normal trading is expected to resume on Wednesday.

In economic news, S&P/Case-Shiller said that its home price index rose by 0.49 percent in August, the seventh-straight monthly gain. Year-over-year, prices are up 2.03 percent, better than the anticipated 1.9 percent.

Elsewhere around the world, the Bank of Japan boosted the size of its asset purchase program by 91 trillion yen ($138 billion) at its latest policy meeting, which was close to what was expected.

Taking a look at currency markets, the U.S. Dollar Index was last trading down by 0.37 to 79.93 percent.

• Gold and silver edged higher. The yellow metal was last trading up by $0.63, or 0.04 percent, to $1710.63, while the gray metal rose by $0.04, or 0.11 percent, to $31.83.
  
  Platinum fell by $1.12, or 0.07 percent, to $1552.25 and palladium was unchanged at $597.75.
  
  "We continue to see $1,700 an ounce as an important support level," said analysts at Deutsche Bank.
  
  
• Crude oil was mixed. Brent was last trading down by $0.52, or 0.48 percent, to $108.92, while WTI advanced $0.05, or 0.06 percent, to $85.60.
  
  "The shutdown of refineries [on the U.S. East Coast] basically means that there are breaks in the supply chain," said Michael Hewson, senior markets analyst at CMC Markets. "[This] means there will be a little bit of scarcity, so that can still underpin prices."
  
  
• The expiration of the November natural gas futures contract pushed December to the front of the board. In turn, front-month prices reached the highest levels in a year in anticipation of the winter heating season. However, the December contract was lower when compared with the closing price on Monday. Prices were last trading down by $0.11, or 2.8 percent, to $3.70 after reaching as high as $3.82 earlier.
  
  
• The grain complex was mixed. Corn was last trading up by $0.04, or 0.54 percent, to $7.41/bushel, while soybeans rose by $0.09, or 0.61 percent, to $15.37 and wheat fell by $0.02, or 0.23 percent, to $8.56.
  
  
• Copper was last trading up by $0.02, or 0.47 percent, to $3.51/lb on Comex.
  
  "There is absolutely no appetite at the minute to pick up metals as an investment. In September, QE3 came in and euphoria pushed prices up. But if you look at real data, it's not improving," said Dominic Schnider, head of commodity research at UBS Wealth Management. "We probably won't get an acceleration in Chinese demand until March."