Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Weak dollar, China data boost oil prices


Oil prices pushed to new highs for the year yesterday on a weak dollar and new data suggesting manufacturing in China has strengthened. Both of those factors helped send energy prices to record highs last summer.
The national average gasoline price over the weekend rose above $2.50 a gallon for the first time since October.

Benchmark crude oil for July delivery rose $2.27 to settle at $68.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close since November. On the ICE Futures exchange in London, Brent crude rose $2.45 to settle at $67.97 a barrel.
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Gold Bounces as Euro Hits 2009 High, But "No Strong Investment" Despite US Hyper-Inflation Fears


THE PRICE OF WHOLESALE GOLD bounced in London on Tuesday morning, reaching $983 an ounce for Dollar investors and recovering from near 5-week lows versus the British Pound.

The Gold Price in Euros held steady at €689 as the single currency also leapt, jumping to new 2009 highs against the Dollar above $1.4270.

"Upside for gold could be limited today," reckons Walter de Wet at Standard Bank in a note. "There were fairly large volumes of physical gold selling [on Monday] when the price moved above $980."

But with US Treasury bond prices down more than 5% for the year to date, and "while higher yields increase the cost of holding gold in the longer run," de Wet adds, "right now it signals reduced investment appetite for exposure to the US and a weaker Dollar."

"Don't be complacent and think there isn't any alternative for China to buy your bills and bonds," warned former central-bank advisor Yu Yongding - scheduled to meet US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner in Beijing today - in an interview on Monday.

"The Euro is an alternative. And there are lots of raw materials we can still buy."

According to data from Bloomberg , foreign investment in US Treasury debt rose nearly $69 billion in May, with strong foreign demand for last week's auction of $101bn in new bonds.

The Federal Reserve will continue its $300bn "quantitative easing" of longer-term interest rates by purchasing 10- and 2-year bonds in the open market tomorrow and Thursday.

"Most of the ongoing rally in the precious metal is more driven by a stark weakness in the US Dollar than the risk averse buying we saw last winter," agrees Andrey Kryuchenkov at VTB Capital in London, quoted by The Telegraph.

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US Stocks Higher On Housing Data; Financials Stay Lower

Stocks built on Monday's rally in a broad push higher Tuesday as investors digested encouraging housing data, though a rising supply of shares in several Wall Street bellwethers damped financials.

Major indexes seesawed between gains and losses through the day, but major milestones for the year remained in sight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 30 points, or 0.4%, to 8751. At its morning high, the blue-chip measure rose about 66 points, almost 11 points above its 2008 close of 8776.39.

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