Commodities Update — Gold inches up; Wheat at one-week high; Copper retreats

Copper retreated in London on Friday and was on track for its fifth straight weekly loss (Shutterstock)
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RIYADH: Gold was marginally up on Friday, as the dollar clung to its 20-year peak, setting prices on course for their biggest weekly drop in eight by driving down demand for bullion. 

Spot gold inched up 0.1 percent at $1,744.07 per ounce by 0323 GMT. 

US gold futures were flat at $1,739.70.

Silver down

Spot silver dipped 0.3 percent to $19.28 per ounce, and platinum firmed 0.1 percent to $874.50, but both were set for weekly losses. 

Palladium climbed 0.6 percent to $2,002.50, and has gained about 2 percent for the week.

Wheat climbs

Chicago wheat futures jumped more than 2 percent and touched a one-week high on Friday, building on the previous session’s rally as easing concerns over a global recession and worries about lower production in Argentina underpinned the market.

Corn and soybeans rose for a third consecutive session.

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 2.2 percent at $8.55 a bushel, as of 0229 GMT, after climbing to its highest since July 1 at $8.55-1/4 a bushel earlier in the session.

Corn rose 1.2 percent to $6.03-1/4 a bushel and soybeans gained 1.2 percent at $13.81-3/4 a bushel.

Copper rebounding in Shanghai Futures Exchange

Copper retreated in London on Friday and was on track for its fifth straight weekly loss, as worries about COVID-19 curbs in China outweighed hopes for stimulus for the top metals consumer.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.5 percent to $7,780 a ton by 0428 GMT.

On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-traded August copper contract ended morning trade 1.2 percent higher at $8,787.83 a ton, off a session high of 60,540 yuan.

Copper rose sharply on Thursday following a Bloomberg News report saying China was considering allowing local governments to sell $220 billion of special bonds in the second half of this year to boost infrastructure funding.

(With input from Reuters)