CL
West Texas Intermediate crude advanced for a third day as applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell for the first time in three weeks. Prices climbed 0.5%. Jobless claims dropped by 20K to 331K last week, stated the Labor Department. WTI for March delivery rose 46 cents to settle at $97.84 per barrel. Electronic trading volume was 471,946 contracts at morning. It totaled 514,958 contracts yesterday, 1.9% above the three-month average.
GOLD
While most of the investors lost their faith in the gold as a safe heaven and following the global trend to the emerging markets assets, some of them still believe in the yellow metal. Gold shows a weak reaction against the forecasts of the U.S. non-farm payroll and unemployment rate. It gained a bit amid the jobless claims yesterday as the report showed that jobless claims dropped by 20K to 331K in January, while the forecasts were for a decrease to 335,000. Gold rose to 1288.66 as day’s high, to start today’s session at 1256.90, the average trading rate of yesterday.
