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View Full Version : Gold hits highest level since 1980....




zumajoe
09-19-2007, 10:05 PM
I don't know much about the "gold standard", but isn't this good news for the idea of going back to it?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/13eeaa62-66c0-11dc-a218-0000779fd2ac.html

Oil prices jump above $82 a barrel
By Javier Blas in London
Published: September 19 2007 16:05 | Last updated: September 19 2007 20:22
Commodities prices on Wednesday rose with crude oil hitting its sixth consecutive record high above $82 a barrel and spot gold approaching a near 28-year high of $730 an ounce troy. Base metals registered rises of between 2 and 10 per cent.

Agricultural commodities were down on profit-taking and signals that some food importing countries, such as India, had bought enough cereals for their inventories.

Crude oil jumped to a $82.51 after a larger-than-expected fall in US crude oil inventories last week.

Worries about a potential tropical storm heading to the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico; investor covering of previous bearish bets, and the US Federal Reserve interest rate cut also helped to push up prices.

In New York, Nymex October West Texas Intermediate rose to an intraday record high of $82.51 a barrel.

It later pared gains and traded 29 cents lower on the day at $81.23 a barrel.

The October contract will expire at the end of today’s trading. The most active Nymex November WTI contract rose to an intraday high of $81.11 a barrel and later traded 28 cents down at $79.94 a barrel.

In London, ICE November Brent rose to $78.49 a barrel and later traded 10 cents higher at $77.69 a barrel.

Oil companies Total, BP, Marathon and Shell on Wednesday evacuated non-essential staff from oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The region is home to about 30 per cent of the US’s oil and gas production.

US crude oil inventories last week fell 3.8m barrels to 318.8m barrels.

The drop, the tenth decline in the past 11 weeks, was almost double Wall Street’s forecast.

US crude oil inventories are now about 4 per cent below last year’s level.

US middle distillates inventories, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, rose 1.5m barrels to 135.5m barrels, while US gasoline inventories increased 400,000 barrels to 190.8m barrels.

The oil price rise combined with strong gains in base metals to push the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, a broad gauge of raw material costs, to a year high of 328.63 points.

The Baltic Dry Index, a gauge of freight costs that is considered a barometer of emerging markets commodities demand, rose 1.4 per cent to 8,429 points, just shy of last week’s all-time high of 8,477.

John Kemp, of Sempra Metals, warned that commodities prices looked over-valued.

“The whole commodities complex is in denial about the likely impact of the financial turbulence on economic growth and commodities demand,” he said.

In late trading on the London Metal Exchange, copper, the base metals’ bellwether, rose to a six-week high of $7,895 a tonne, up 4 per cent on the day.

Aluminium rose 3.65 per cent to 2,497 a tonne.

Nickel jumped 10 per cent to $33,700 a tonne, its highest price since mid-July, and lead rose 2.4 per cent to $3,215 a tonne.

Zinc rose 5.2 per cent to $2,974 a tonne.

Spot gold prices in London rose to $726 an ounce, just below the 27-year high of $730 an ounce reached in May 2006. It later traded at $722.65.

Gold prices in the Comex futures market in New York jumped overnight to a 27-year high of $735 a troy ounce as investors took refuge in the bullion from a weakening US dollar.

Most agricultural commodities fell, with CBOT December wheat down 22 cents to $8.47 a bushel.