MarketWatch
Gold drops $12, silver sinks 7% and copper at six-month low
Friday December 15, 4:10 pm ET
By Myra P. Saefong
U.S. dollar strengthens; silver drops 7%; copper down 3% on week
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures dropped almost $12 an ounce Friday, silver lost 7% and copper prices sank to a six-month low -- with all three ending the week lower as the U.S. dollar readied for a weekly gain.
The gold market "looks vulnerable to ... liquidation as the dollar claws back [out] of its recent weakness," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, in a note to clients.
Still, "the mid- to longer-term outlook for gold remains bullish due to increasing investor interest and speculation of institutional dollar diversification," he said, in a note to clients.
Gold for February delivery closed down $11.80 at $619.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was its lowest closing level since Oct. 31 and it lost $11.90, or 1.9%, for the week.
On Thursday, the contract closed lower but held above $630 an ounce, a key level in recent weeks.
The dollar rose a one-month high versus the yen and three-week high against the euro Friday, after fresh economic reports reinforced market expectations the U.S. economy is likely headed for a soft landing.
The greenback had earlier dropped sharply after a government report showed lower-than-expected U.S. retail-level inflation for November, boosting hopes the Federal Reserve will be in a position to lower interest rates early next year. It reversed course after a separate report showed U.S. industrial production rose more than forecast last month. See Currencies.
U.S. industrial production rose by an overall 0.2% in November, as the auto sector showed signs of life after sharp declines in the prior two months, the Federal Reserve said. Capacity utilization remained steady in November at 81.8% from October.
The Labor Department surprised the market early Friday with a report showing consumer prices were unchanged in November as lower energy and car prices offset higher costs for homeownership and medical care.
The flat readings could encourage the Federal Reserve to begin to relax about inflation. Earlier in the week, the Federal Open Market Committee said it judged inflation risks to be its greatest concern even as it held interest rates steady at 5.25%. See our complete coverage of the Fed.
Buy opportunity?
Ned Schmidt, editor of the Value View Gold Report had a bit of advice for metals traders Friday: "Don't let the paper-asset pushers on the Street muddle your thinking. Inflation in the U.S. hit a low in October, and is headed up."
Given that, "excessive and emotional selling by Street of metals is creating buying opportunity," he said, warning that "Monday [will] likely to be low for rest of year."
Meanwhile, gold failed to garner support from another key commodity, oil, which was set to end the week higher after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on Thursday to cut production by another half a million barrels in February. See Futures Movers.
"Traders continue to ponder the after-effects of the agreement on OPEC production cuts as well as the reality of record-high equity indices," said Jon Nadler, an investment-products analyst at bullion dealers Kitco.com.
"For better or for worse, money keeps being diverted into paper promises of corporate performance -- and any such diversion has a drag on potential gold prices," he said in e-mailed commentary.
Copper, silver prices sink
Meanwhile, copper prices in New York touched a low under $3 a pound for the first time since late June as traders gauged supply and demand.
March copper fell as low as $2.9925 a pound before closing at $3.0165 a pound, down 4.1 cents for the session and down 3.1% from last week.
"Given the situation in copper where various statistical bodies show negative consumption of copper in China, when [industrial production] growth is thriving, we feel there is considerable risk of pent-up demand in the metal -- as such, it is hard to get too negative for the metal," said Williams Adams, an analyst at BaseMetals.com.
Silver futures suffered along with gold and copper, with its March contract dropping 97 cents to end at $12.98 an ounce. It touched a four-week low of $12.96 earlier and it ended with a loss of 6.6% for the week.
Other metals fell with January platinum fell $8.20 to close at $1,104.50 an ounce -- down $3.30 from last week's close. March palladium lost $6.80 to end at $324.25 an ounce, down 2.9% from a week ago.
On the supply side, gold inventories were unchanged at 7.49 million troy ounces as of late Thursday, according to Nymex data. Silver supplies were flat at 109.9 million troy ounces and copper supplies fell by 2,601 short tons to 31,725 short tons.
Over on the London Metals Exchange, cash prices for zinc were at $4,464 per metric ton on Thursday. Analysts are concerned that global demand will continue outpace supplies. See Commodities Corner.
In equities Friday, most metals-mining shares fell after closing out Thursday's session with only modest gains.
Bema Gold (NYSE
GO - News) was one of the bigger movers in the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index (TSX VENTURE
AU.V - News), with the company's shares down 4.2%. The index closed down 1.3% at 142.93.
The CBOE Gold Index closed at 149.13, down 1.6%, while the Amex Gold Bugs Index shed 1.5% to close at 339.35.
The DJ Wilshire Nonferrous Metals Index fell 0.2% to close at 6,051.88. But the DJ Wilshire Industrial Metals Index finished at 3,364.57, up 0.5% and the DJ Wilshire General Mining Index added 0.2% to end at 1,368.81.
dico sempre "è l'ultima volta", se no come mi rifaccio? certo, non stando fermo, l'unica è riprovare, così mi riprendo tutto il maltolto...
. . .insomma c' erano dei grafici
e vedo pure un min a 4146 
