Oil futures on Thursday settled at their lowest level in nearly a month, with strength in the U.S. dollar adding insult to injury to a market that is already suffering from record-high crude supplies in the U.S.
April crude CLJ5, +2.80% dropped $2.82, or 5.5%, to settle at $48.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the lowest close for a most-active contract since late January.
Brent crude for April delivery LCOJ5, +4.05% on London’s ICE Futures exchange lost $1.58, or 2.6%, to $60.05 a barrel.
May silver SIK5, -0.02% traded at $16.585 an ounce, down 4 cents, or 0.2%. It was down around 3.7% for the month but up roughly 1.9% for the week.
Also on Comex, April platinum PLJ5, +1.23% rose $11.20, or 1% to $1,184.80 an ounce, down 4.3% for the month, while June palladium PAM5, +0.99% added $2.40, or 0.3%, to $813.45 an ounce, over 5% higher for the month. May copper HGK5, -0.17% fell 2.4 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.671 a pound, poised for a monthly gain of around 7%.
Don’t expect to see much of a climb in gold prices this year, but a spike to $1,700 an ounce or more could come as early as the summer of 2016.
Gold futures prices on Comex closed at $1,210.10 an ounce on Thursday, with the metal stuck in a range of just over $114 an ounce year to date, based on the most-active contracts.
