Commodities End Lower as Gold, Oil Futures Fall; Cotton Surges to Record

Commodities ended trading lower with crude oil and gold futures finishing in the red. Crude oil in particular was pressured by a larger-than-expected increase in weekly jobless claims and supply data.

U.S. weekly jobless claims rose more than expected and the Department of Energy data reported an unexpectedly sharp build in U.S. crude inventories, which indicates slow demand. The DoE said inventories jumped 4.8 million barrels in the week ending Jan. 21, compared to analyst expectations of 900,000 barrels.

Light, sweet crude oil for March delivery finished down 1.9%, or $1.69, to $85.64 a barrel. In other energy futures, heating oil was down 0.10% to $2.66 a gallon while natural gas was down 3.47% to $4.33 per million British thermal units.

Meanwhile, gold futures finished lower after Europe's central banker said that key central banks are committed to keeping inflation down, reports MarketWatch.

Gold for February delivery finished down $14.60 to $1,318.40 an ounce. In other metal futures, silver was down 0.56% to $26.97 a troy ounce while copper rose 1.69% to $4.33 a pound.

The U.S. dollar index (DXY) is down 0.26% to $77.70.

Potash Shares Higher Following Q4 Earnings News

Shares of Potash (POT) are higher in mid-day trading after the company said it earned an adjusted $1.77 per share in Q4 on sales of $1.81 billion. The Thomson Reuters mean was for $1.65 per share on sales of $1.62 billion. It raised its 2011 earnings forecast to a range of $8.40 to $9.60 a share. Estimates are for $8.89 per share. Potash also declared a 3-for-1 stock split. Potash shares are up 2.5%, or $4.24, to $172.86.

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