February 1, 2013

On Friday, somewhat below par January jobs numbers were offset by significant upward revisions to 2012 employment data as well as improved readings on U.S. consumer sentiment, manufacturing and construction spending, pushing the Dow Industrials past the 14,000 mark for the first time since 2007 while also giving most commodities a boost. In London, base metal prices finished higher across the board today. LME 3-mo. copper reportedly last traded at $8,310/mt ($3.769/lb.) while LME 3-mo. nickel hit multi-month highs, trading as high as $18,650/mt ($8.46/lb.) today. In New York, COMEX Mar copper gained over 5 cents on the day and +13 cents for the week to reach $3.7825/lb. this afternoon. Precious metal prices also rose as COMEX silver futures briefly traded above $32/to and finished the day nearly 2% higher while gold prices climbed back over $1,670/to. Equities continued to benefit from the improving sentiment as the Dow Industrials, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all up over 1% in afternoon trading. In foreign exchange trading the Euro breached the $1.37 level while the dollar continued its remarkable run against the Japanese Yen, climbing to 92.60 Yen after having bottomed out below 78 Yen in September…