Upswing in gold, crude oil prices, copper declines

China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) increased in January by 23.4 percent to $10 billion as compared a year earlier. Monetary policy tightening is expected as rising FDI is complicating central bank’s efforts to curb excess liquidity and rising inflation.
Anti-government protests are gaining pace across the Middle East and North Africa despite governments offering political and economic concessions. Concerns have emerged in Libya, Bahrain, Iran, Yemen and Iraq. Demonstration against long serving rulers has spread as protestors in Yemen demanded an end to the president’s three decade in power.
Geo-political concerns could affect global market sentiments which are currently upbeat on the back of improvement in US economic recovery. Spot Gold prices traded higher today as rising tensions in the Middle East led to demand for the yellow metal as a safe-haven. Apart from that, inflationary pressures are also supporting demand for gold as an inflation hedge. But MCX Gold April contract witnessed downside pressure till 4.00 pm IST as appreciation in the Indian Rupee capped gains in the domestic markets.
Copper prices continued to witness downside pressure on inflation worries coupled with concerns over demand for the red metal. It has been witnessed that, Chinese activity in the copper market is low because of the recent impact of Chinese New Year holidays. Also, there are fears that China could further raise interest rates, thereby leading to concern that demand from the world’s largest consumer may get affected.
Nymex Crude Oil prices continued the uptrend as the Israel-Iran tension and unrest in the Middle East led to expectations over supply disruption. But sharp rise in prices was restricted on account of rise in inventories by 860,000 million barrels to 345.9 million barrels, marking the fifth straight weekly rise.
Outlook
We expect the rally in gold prices to continue as inflation and geopolitical concerns will support demand for the yellow metal.
Additionally, a weaker dollar is also expected to support prices. Base metals on the other hand are expected to witness downside as concerns with regard to inflation in China persist. In the case of Copper, demand worries will additionally act as a negative trigger.
Crude oil prices are expected to rise, taking direction from worries in the oil producing countries. A weaker dollar will also support additional upside in the commodity.

(Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/futures-trading/technical/Upswing-in-gold-crude-oil-prices-copper-declines-22019.html)