Oil prices shot higher last week after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) caught traders by surprise, tightening the taps in anticipation of weaker demand when warmer weather arrives in the United States and Europe.
Commodities, in particular metals, also received a fillip from US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose comments painted a bright picture of the world's largest economy and also weighed on the dollar.
GOLD: Gold prices raced away from a two month-plus low point seen the week earlier as the enfeebled dollar received a fresh battering.
The precious metal has benefited greatly from the recent decline of the US unit, which has prompted a flight to hard assets and made dollar-denominated gold more attractive to buyers using other currencies.
"Gold rallied on the back of the US dollar depreciation," said Societe Generale analyst Stephen Briggs.
But gold prices remained below a 15-year peak close to 430 dollars per ounce seen in early January.
Weak physical demand and worries about a possible increase in central bank sales were also putting a drag on the gold price, Briggs said.
A deal struck by European central banks that aims to stabilise the gold market by limiting the amounts of gold they sell expires in September.
The so-called Washington Agreement, brokered by 15 central banks meeting in the US capital in September 1999, is expected to be renewed, though the maximum amount of gold any central bank could sell in a year may be raised.
By Friday afternoon, gold prices stood at 416 dollars an ounce on the London Bullion Market against 404.25 dollars a week earlier.
SILVER: Silver prices got a double boost from gains in the precious and base metal markets.
The silver price stood at 6.563 dollars per ounce on the London Bullion Market on Friday against 6.095 dollars a week earlier.
"Silver follows gold, but tends to do better than gold when base metals are really doing well, because it benefits from both," said Briggs.
"So silver has gone up a lot on the back of both gold and base metals' rally."
PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM: The platinum group metals (PGMs) rose in tandem with gold and silver, helped by a fresh bout of dollar weakness.
"Platinum is strong again because the dollar is weak and the (South African) rand is strong," said Briggs.
As with gold, a softer dollar tends to boost demand for the PGMs, which are traded in the US currency on world markets.
A stronger rand discourages production by South African miners - a major source of the metals - because it eats into their repatriated earnings.
Palladium also benefited from interest from hedge funds, said Briggs.
"They (the funds) consider that palladium has a lot of potential because it has not gone up as much as the other metals, but fundamentals are weak and it is going to be hard work for the funds to push the price up."
By Friday, the platinum price stood at 852 dollars per ounce on the London Platinum and Palladium Market against 834 dollars a week earlier.
Palladium traded at 239 dollars an ounce from 236 dollars.
BASE METALS: Base metal prices climbed to new multi-year highs, boosted by a weakening of the dollar, upbeat comments from Greenspan and worries about supply disruptions.
Copper, lead and tin prices all rose to levels not seen since May 1996, while aluminium topped 1,700 dollars per tonne for the first time for four years.
"Comments from the Federal Reserve chairman suggest the best possible scenario for industrial metal markets at present: strong economic growth, low interest rates and a falling US dollar," said Barclays Capital analyst Ingrid Sternby.
"These comments paved the way for another shaarp push higher in base metal prices, led by Chinese short-covering in copper, resulting in fresh highs in all base metals except for nickel and tin.
"Market specific fundamentals remain strong for the upward price trends to persist," she told clients.
Output stoppages from the Escondida mine in Chile, the world's largest copper mine, the Grasberg mine in Indonesia and the Falconbridge nickel mine in Canada were also helping to drive prices upwards, analysts said.
By Friday, three-month copper prices had risen to 2,700 dollars per tonne on the London Metal Exchange from 2,549 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminium prices firmed to 1,715 dollars per tonne from 1,668. Three-month nickel prices gained to 15,400 dollars per tonne from 15,000.
Three-month zinc prices edged up to 1,102 dollars per tonne from 1,071.5.
Three-month lead prices bounced up to 854 dollars per tonne from 806.
Three-month tin prices advanced to 6,640 dollars per tonne from 6,420.
OIL: Oil prices gushed higher after the OPEC cartel wrong-footed traders by announcing plans to slash output by about 10 percent by April 1.
Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed in Algiers on Tuesday to trim their combined output quota of 24.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by one million bpd from the start of April.
OPEC also called on its members to eliminate 1.5 million bpd of production now exceeding the official ceiling.
Prices jumped on news of the decision, but later retreated somewhat as the market doubted the organisation's ability to implement the steep cuts.
"OPEC talks, and talk is cheap," said US-based Oppenheimer analyst Fadel Gheit.
Nevertheless, "oil prices are already high and I'm sure they're very happy with them," Gheit said. OPEC members have been flouting their self-imposed output quotas, taking advantage of high prices to pump more oil and increase their revenues.
Most traders had expected OPEC to put off an output cut until its next scheduled meeting at its Vienna headquarters on March 31 to avoid irking consumers grappling with high prices.
Prices were also supported by a weekly report from the US Energy Department, which rekindled concerns about the low level of crude oil inventories, reporting a drop of 2.7 million barrels in crude stocks for the week ended February 6.
Gasoline, or petrol, inventories declined by 1.2 million barrels, while distillate stocks - heating oil and diesel - fell by 5.9 million barrels.
By Friday, the price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for April delivery stood at 30.42 dollars a barrel in London from 28.60 dollars a week before.
In New York, the reference light sweet crude Maarch contract traded at 34.35 dollars against 33.00 a week earlier.
RUBBER: Rubber prices bounced back, lifted by relatively robust demand and the start of the low harvest season that runs through to April.
"There has been a reasonable demand for latex, especially from China, as we approach what we call the wintering period," said a London trader, who wished to remain anonymous.
"The market could improve next week, provided that the Chinese continue buying," he added.
In Singapore the RSS 3 contract for April closed at 128.25 US cents on Friday against 125.50 a week earlier.
COCOA: Coffee futures retreated slightly in London trade and remained weak in New York as the market's attention turned to Ghana.
Prices have succumbed "to a spate of speculative selling", said Refco analyst Ann Prendergast.
She added: "News from Ghana alludes to an 'important quantity' of beans still to be harvested."
Prices were also pressured by technical factors linked to the expiry of the March contract.
On LIFFE, the price of cocoa for May delivery fell to 852 pounds a tonne on Friday from 877 pounds a week before.
But on the CSCE, the New York futures market, the May contract advanced to 1,545 dollars per tonne from 1,536 dollars.
COFFEE: Coffee prices rebounded on speculative buying, while the market digested a forecast seen as positive for prices from the president of the Colombia Coffee Federation.
"(CCF president) Gabriel Silva said he expected higher coffee prices to be sustained, based on reduced stocks, dryness and reduced cultivation in Brazil and increased consumption", said Prendergast. On LIFFE, Robusta quality for May delivery rose to 768 dollars per tonne on Friday, from 762 dollars a week earlier.
On New York's CSCE market, Arabica for March delivery stood at 76.60 cents a pound compared with 72.85 cents the previous Friday.
SUGAR: Sugar prices picked up slightly after slipping back for a number of weeks, supported by revised analyst forecasts on surplus stocks.
British trading house Czarnikow reduced slightly its forecast for the 2003-2004 surplus to 1.15 million tonnes from 1.32 million previously, adding that there remained a considerable surplus in the Americas and an even better outlook for Asia.
Meanwhile, higher maritime transport costs also helped to drive up prices as sellers sought to recoup the increased charges.
On LIFFE, the price of a tonne of white sugar for May delivery climbed to 196.40 dollars on Friday from 189.60 dollars the previous week.
On the CSCE in New York, a pound of unrefined sugar for March delivery slipped to 5.44 cents from 5.46 cents the previous Friday.
GRAINS AND SOYA: Asia's deadly bird flu continued to hit the price of maize and soya, with demand for animal feed abroad down as chickens continued to be slaughtered.
Soya saw a 60 percent drop in exports last week, according to weekly export figures released by the US agriculture department.
Hopes of large Chinese orders for wheat ahead of the arrival of a delegation of Chinese buyers to the United States next week helped prop up prices.
In Chicago, the price of wheat for March delivery stood at 387.50 cents a bushel on Friday from 380.50 a week earlier.
On LIFFE, wheat for March delivery fell to 93.50 pounds a tonne from 101.75 pounds.
In Chicago maize for March delivery rose to 282.25 cents a bushel from 278 cents.
Soyabeans for March delivery fell to 822 cents a bushel from 842.
March-dated soyabean meal - used in animal feed - dropped to 242.70 dollars per tonne from 256.30.
COTTON: Cotton prices fell to their lowest level for five months, again weakened by a lack of buying interest by speculators.
"The failure to attract speculative support brought the market crashing back," said Refco's Prendergast.
New York's May contract fell to 68.06 cents a pound on Friday from 71.37 cents a week earlier.
The Cotton Outlook Index of physical cotton, the average of the world's lowest prices, declined to 73.25 cents from 74.35 cents.
WOOL: Wool prices slid as the Australian dollar grew stronger against the greenback. "After steadying last week, the Australian wool market fell this week with prices dropping by 1.8 percent on average," noted the Australian Wool Industries Secretariat.
The Australian dollar passed the 79 US cent mark for the first time in seven years on Friday.
The wool market was also influenced by news that next week's offering for auction will be 73,700 bales, 10,000 bales greater than the largest previous offering this season, the secretariat added.
"Trade reports indicate that a number of buying firms reduced their limits on the basis that it will be cheaper next week," it said, adding that buyers for Italy were dominant during the week. The Australian Eastern index stood at 7.75 Australian dollars per kilo on Thursday from 7.90 dollars the previous week.
The British Wooltops index remained unchanged at 468 pence.
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