Yan Falls against the Dollar

Oil prices retreated on Wednesday after the release of weekly US inventories data while gold prices saw volatility increase sharply following Tuesday’s steep falls in global equity markets.

ICE April Brent fell 73 cents to $60.63 a barrel while Nymex April West Texas Intermediate lost $1.03 at $60.43 a barrel as crude prices retreated from the high for 2007 reached on Tuesday.

Cold weather in the US north-east has boosted demand for heating oil recently with distillate demand up by 9.7 per cent in the last four weeks compared with the same period a year ago. Distillate stocks (including heating oil) fell by 3.8m barrels, above the consensus market forecast for a fall of 2.8m barrels. However, Nymex March heating oil traded just under 3 cents lower at $1.75003 a gallon.

Gasoline stocks fell 1.9m barrels last week, in line with the consensus forecast for a decline of 1.8m barrels. Nymex March RBOB gasoline lost 2.2 cents at $1.7940 a gallon.

Gold fell 2.1 per cent to $664.60 a troy ounce in volatile conditions following nervous, choppy trade in the Asian session. Gold is normally seen as a beneficiary of safe haven buying in times of market turmoil but traders said the short-term outlook was unusually difficult to call as recent price moves had left many investors feeling wary.

Further volatility appears likely as long gold positions – bets on further price appreciation – held by hedge funds and the speculative community stand at high levels.

Francisco Blanch, commodity strategist at Merrill Lynch, said the global economic backdrop for commodities was starting to turn more positive with base metals consumption per capita in emerging markets expected to catch up significantly with developed economies.

“The transition [in emerging markets] from export-led to domestic demand driven growth strongly underpins the long-term super-cycle case for commodities,” said Mr Blanch.

However, base metals retreated yesterday with copper down 3.6 per cent to $6,005 a tonne in spite of evidence that Chinese demand is continuing to recover. Customs data showed that China imported 131,851 tonnes of refined copper in January, an increase of 86.3 per cent on the same period a year ago.

Aluminium lost 1.9 per cent at $2,825 a tonne while zinc lost 2.9 per cent at $3,475 a tonne.

Nickel lost 1 per cent to $41,250 a tonne after hitting a record $41,700 a tonne in the previous session.Just 1,878 tonnes of nickel stocks are available to the market, less then half a day’s worth of global consumption. Nickel prices have been supported by strong demand from stainless steelmakers. China revised its estimate for steel production last year to 422.66m tonnes, an increase of 19.7 per cent on 2005.

Hopes for a recovery in tin exports from Indonesia were dented by news that seven smelters on Bangka island have been told to resubmit applications for export permits. Tin fell 3.1 per cent to $13,135 a tonne.