Still wobbly from aggressive trading just a few days earlier, the world's industrial and precious metals market was rocked further by a major sell-off on Friday, according to Reuters.
The movement began in Asia on Thursday night and carried over into Europe on Friday morning. By press time here in the U.S., it was unclear if the trend would continue to follow the sun.
But analyst and traders consider it an ominous sign for precious metals, a commodities segment that has been enjoying a two-year bull market.
"Even if this sell-off has run its course, it should still be seen as a possible warning," said William Adams of
On Friday in the U.S., an early afternoon news reports from Bloomberg indicated that funds remained bullish on commodities, despite the activity. Fund investment in commodities is expected to reach an all-time high this year, somewhere in the neighborhood of $120 billion. That should quell nerves for the time being, experts said.
"At some stage, the fundamentals will become influential again, but while the funds are willing and able to buy commodities, you have to accept that their patronage is the most influential aspect in the market and will remain so until something knocks them from their current thinking," Adams said.
The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.
