Crude Oil
West Texas Intermediate crude climbed as U.S. payrolls exceeded their pre-recession peak, signaling greater fuel demand. Brent slipped as world leaders at D-Day commemorations in France discussed the Ukraine crisis. “The jobs number is being perceived as a positive sign for the overall economy and bullish for demand,” said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York. “We’ll be keeping an eye on events in France today and see if the leaders and officials gathered there will come to any agreements that ease tension in Ukraine.” The jobs data marked the fourth straight month employment increased by more than 200,000, the first time that’s happened since early 2000. The gain put total employment beyond its peak of 138.4 million reached in January 2008, one month after the start of the deepest recession since World War II. The number of employees on payrolls stood at almost 138.5 million in May.
Gold
Gold fell from a one-week high as equities advanced, diminishing demand for the precious metal as an alternative investment. The 60-day historical volatility for the metal this week reached the lowest since April 2013, and the value of exchange-traded products backed by the commodity shrank by $2.6 billion in May, the most this year. Gold’s appeal as a haven diminished as U.S. equities surged and tension between Ukraine and Russia eased. More than $1.1 trillion was added to the value of global stock markets last month. After the payrolls report, “we saw a very delayed reaction in gold, and it was equities that put pressure on,” Mike Dragosits, a senior commodity strategist at TD Securities in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. “Prices will remain range-bound as there is no big catalyst to push it one way or another.”
