Crude oil
Crude oil futures closed the deals lower on Wednesday after the government released data showed higher growth of the US oil inventories than it was expected. That is why fears about weakening demand renewed.
According to the trading results, the January sweet crude oil futures fell by 1.77 USD or by 2.3% to 76.60 USD per barrel. Brent January futures dropped in price by 1.47 USD or by 1.85% to 78.88 USD per barrel.
As the data released by Energy Information Administration attached to Department of Energy has shown that the US oil inventories for week November 21-27 increased by 2.1 million barrels and reached 3-month high of 340 million barrels.
Analysts were waiting for 800 000 barrels growth of the oil inventories. Based on weekly reports in November of the current year the US crude oil stocks reached the highest level for November since November 1994.
Oil and petroleum products demand in the USA which are the largest consumer of hydrocarbon again demonstrated weakness. During four weeks ended on November 27, the oil consumption of 18491 million barrels per a day turned out to be at the lowest level for November since 1995 and at the lowest level for four-week period since July 10.
Gold
Gold prices again refreshed the record high on Wednesday as investors continued to buy this metal reckoning on automatic growth acceleration considering that gold futures closed on the upside according to 20 from 22 sessions.
During this period gold went up in price by about 15% that more than in two times exceed Standard & Poor\'s 500 index growth. Investors are advancing positions just because of technical impulse signaling about growth. Gold is bought along with other raw commodities, shares and more profitable currencies inasmuch as the market participants want to pull out funds from the US dollar and diversify them. Concerns about possible inflation bounce in the nearest months also instigate investors to buy gold.
The February gold futures trading most actively rose by 12.80 USD to 1213 USD per ounce following the trading results. Gold futures closed above 1200 USD level the second sequential session. The December gold futures trading weakly climbed by 12.90 USD to 1212 USD after they reached also the highest mark of 1217.30 USD for futures with the nearest delivery term. These futures closed above 1200 USD for the first time. Before deals have started in New York gold prices at the spot market hit the record high of 1217.10 USD.
However, inflation adjusted gold prices are still far from the high of 1980 which is about 2300 USD. In some observers opinion this level can become target for gold, but others think this mark is not important.
The fact, that gold prices jumped on Wednesday even in terms of the greenback growth, the oil prices decline and weak dynamics of the American stock indices, points out how strong the growth potential of gold at present moment.
Best regards,
Analyst: V. Donin.
