NEW YORK: A key commodities index climbed to five-month highs on Friday and notched a fifth straight weekly gain, as gold prices rallied on a weaker U.S. dollar and wheat futures hit 5-1/2-week highs on chart-based buying.
The bellwether Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB index touched its highest level since September 2013 as 12 of its 19 components rose.
A weaker dollar boosted metals markets, lifting copper and shooting gold prices to a three-month high above $1,300 an ounce.
Bullion saw its biggest weekly gain in 6 months as weak manufacturing output pressured the greenback and boosted gold's appeal as a currency hedge.
Silver hit its highest since November and ended the day up 4.3 percent at $21.32 an ounce.
In grains, wheat futures rose as chart signals drove short-covering and corn firmed on strong export demand and bargain buying.
U.S. wheat futures ended the week up 3.5 percent and settled up three cents at $5.98-1/2 a bushel, as corn prices rose 4-3/4 cents at $4.45-1/4 a bushel and saw a fourth straight weekly gain.
Cold winter weather in the U.S. Northeast and supply disruptions in producers Libya and Angola lifted Brent crude , but Friday's weak manufacturing data weighed on U.S. crude.
U.S. crude settled five cents lower at $100.30 a barrel, though it ended higher on the week for the fifth week in a row.
Natural gas prices zigzagged throughout the session, but jumped nine percent this week as cold weather plagued regions of the United States and stored gas supplies rapidly dwindled.
Front-month natural gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell less than a penny, settling at $5.214 per million British thermal units.
In softs, arabica coffee in New York edged higher in choppy, heavy trade and posted gains for a third straight week as traders worried that much-needed rains in Brazil were off to a slow start after dry weather has plagued the top producer's coffee belt for weeks.
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