Gold at new high; oil sees slight gains

Gold prices hit a new high Wednesday, while most other metals also saw price gains.

December gold added $12 to $1,114.50 per troy ounce in New York trade after hitting a new high at $1,118.60 per troy ounce in electronic trade earlier in the day with some of the gains given back after the US dollar strengthened after being weaker earlier in the session.

Other precious metals also saw gains as December silver was up 32 cents to $17.55 per troy ounce and January platinum gained $18.40 to $1,369.60 per troy ounce.

December copper traded about even in New York, adding less than a cent to $2.97 per pound, while in London three-month copper added $10 to $6,540 per tonne after going as high as $6,660 per tonne earlier in the session on positive new data from China and Japan, although higher LME inventories held gains at low levels.

While aluminium remained untraded at the close in London, last bids for the metal were up $10.50 to $1,970 per tonne even though stockpiles grew by over 7,000 tonnes during the day, while lead added $16.50 to $2,184 per tonne, zinc was up $23 to $2,184 per tonne, and nickel gained $25 to $16,850 per tonne.

Tin was the exception to gains as it dropped $100 to $14,725 per tonne on the session.

New data from Asia helped oil prices higher, as did an upwardly revised estimate of oil demand growth from OPEC, but gains remained low as December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added 16 cents to $79.21 per barrel shortly before the close of floor traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and December Brent crude was up 35 cents to $77.86 at last report on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

The price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump in the United States was down less than a cent to $2.654 per gallon on average, over 40 cents more than last year at the same time.

Weekly US inventory reports from the US Energy Information Administration, usually released on Wednesday, were delayed a day due to the Veteran’s Day holiday in the United States.

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