Gold Hits 18-Year High

News was light on the economic front again today with the
release of store sales, treasury auctions and the FOMC Minutes for September.
The economic calendar remains light until Friday when CPI, Retail Sales,
Consumer Sentiment, Industrial Production and Business Inventories will hit the
markets.

The FOMC minutes revealed that the Fed decided against keeping
rates on hold as it would send the wrong message to the markets that their focus
was not on inflation, and that they were more concerned about the economy in the
aftermath of hurricane Katrina instead, which they don’t see as having long-term
negative effects.

Treasury prices closed lower and the U.S. Dollar rallied,
hitting a 16-month high versus the Japanese Yen.

The energy markets closed sharply higher today, halting the
recent slide that took crude oil to a 2-month low. Natural Gas was the biggest
gainer in percentage terms as traders feared supplies may run short this winter.

In the metals, Gold hit an 18-year high on inflation worries,
Silver climbed to a new 10-month high, while Copper continued its record
breaking run hitting another new all-time high. The London Metal Exchange noted
that global inventories about to be delivered rose 59% and showed demand for the
industrial metal remains very strong. Gold and Silver were both highlighted in
the

TradingMarkets Momentum 5 List
last night.

The grains closed higher slightly higher as traders await the
USDA Crop Report due to be released tomorrow. Much of the action was put down to
position squaring ahead of the report and small speculative long positions.

TradingMarkets Commodities Watch List

Commodity
(Symbol)
Price Price Change % Change

Energies

Crude Oil (CL) 63.05
+1.48

+2.40
Heating Oil (HO) 201.79
+4.61

+2.34
Unleaded Gas (HU) 183.32
+3.26

+1.81
Natural Gas (NG) 13.52
+0.54

+4.19

Metals

Gold (GC) 479.80
+1.80

+0.38
Silver (SI) 787.50
+3.00

+0.97
Copper (HG) 183.50
+2.90

+1.61

Grains

Corn (C)

202.25
+0.25

+0.12
Wheat (W) 342.75
+3.00

+0.88
Soybeans (S) 563.50
+8.00

+1.44

Softs

Sugar (SB) 11.84
+0.1

+1.37
Coffee (KC) 100.75
+1.85

+1.87
Cocoa (CC) 1356.00 0.00
-0.00
Frozen Orange Juice (JO) 101.60
-2.40

-2.31
Cotton (CT) 55.17
-0.49

-0.88
Lumber (LB) 280.00
-6.10

-2.13

Livestock

Lean Hogs (LH) 64.52
-0.50

-0.77
Live Cattle (LC) 91.40
+0.30

+0.33


Economic News

ICSC-UBS Store Sales:

W/W Change – Actual 0.2%

Ashton Dorkins

ashtond@tradingmarkets.com