Gold extends slump in turbulent week

FE Team | Published: November 09, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

LONDON, Nov 8 (BSS/AFP): Gold prices hit a four-year low, hit by persistent dollar strength, while crude oil plumbed multi-year troughs on fears over Saudi price cuts and plentiful supplies.
A rebounding greenback makes dollar-priced commodities more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies. That tends to dent demand and prices.
Gold: Gold plunged Friday to $1,131.24 per ounce -- its lowest level since mid-April 2010 -- while silver touched a similar nadir at $15.06 an ounce.
Separately on Friday, oversight of London's scandal-hit gold price setting process was awarded to a division of US group Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
Oil: In a rollercoaster week for the oil market, prices plunged on Tuesday after leading producer Saudi Arabia cut its prices for crude sold to the US market.
New York crude tumbled to its lowest close since October 2011 and Brent to its lowest since October 2010.
Analysts interpreted the Saudi move as an effort to maintain market share in North America against cheaper oil flooding from US shale fields.
Cocoa: The market continued to decline on easing output worries over the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which is home to most of the world's cocoa production.
Prices had soared in September to 3.5-year peaks on worries that Ebola could reach key producers Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Sugar: Prices dived in London to a four-year trough of $409.10 per tonne on the back of abundant supplies.
"Sugar was lower on ... big world supplies and on the stronger US dollar," said Price Futures Group analyst Jack Scoville.
Coffee: Arabica recoiled to a six-week low at 182.10 US cents on favourable growing conditions in Brazil.
"Ever since mid-October, the price has been driven down by favourable weather forecasts in Brazil, the most important growing country," said Commerzbank analysts.
Rubber: Kuala Lumpur rubber prices pushed lower amid a report that Indonesian rubber exporters were exercising caution and holding on to stocks.
The Malaysian Rubber Board's benchmark SMR20 fell to 151.00 US cents a kilo on Friday, from 160.20 US cents the previous week.