Gold IN the London market, gold extended earlier losses on June 13 as US economic data added to feverish speculation on the possible timing of the scaling back of the Fed`s monetary stimulus. Spot gold was down 0.7 per cent at $1,379.16 an ounce.

Stimulus unwinding is likely to spell further downside for gold, which is struggling to stay on an even keel, with fund money draining away from the metal since prices crashed in April.

Bullion is now around 27 per cent down from record highs in September 2011.

In the Singapore market, gold extended gains on June 13, as Asian stock markets fell sharply and the US dollar fell to fourmonth lows on persistent uncertainty over the Federal Reserve`s massive stimulus programme. Investors were still weighing the Bank of Japan`s decision to leave its policies unchanged, and the Standard and Poor`s upgrade of the US credit outlook, viewing the moves as signs of economic recovery and a trigger for the US Fed to end its $85 billion monthly bond purchases.

Demand from major buyer China also propped up gold prices.

China, which had shut for the Dragon Boat festival, has been a big factor in holding up bullion prices, even as demand in India, the biggest buyer of the precious metal, has cooled, and investors have dumped their holdings in exchange traded funds.

Indian gold demand remained subdued, and importers and wholesalers struggled to sell supplies from May. The government has raised the import duty on the metal by a third, and curbed gold financing by banks and others in an effort to cut its record current account deficit. Gold imports by India are plunging, as an increase in tax and restrictions on financing shipments boost costs for jewellers. Shipments in June will decline, as only orders placed before the curbs are being shipped now.

The Indian Rupee slumped to a record low last week, partly on concerns that the current account deficit will further widen.

Imports had surged in the past two months as buyers thronged to shops for ornaments, coins and bars, after bullion entered the bear market in April, with investors selling the metal in favour of riskier assets on speculation that the global economy was recovering.

Bullion for immediate delivery is expected to drop to as low as $1,250 an ounce over the next month, after the `well-defined, symmetrical triangle` it formed since April 16. That would be the lowest level since September 2010. Gold has fallen 17 per cent this year, as some investors lost faith in the traditional store of value after 12 years of gains. Bullion traded at $1,383.45 an ounce on June 10 in the London market.

Oil THE world is heading for a glut of refined products, as new Asian and Middle East refineries increase oil processing in a move likely to force less advanced competitors in developed countries to close, states the International Energy Agency.

The IEA said in its monthly report that it expected 9.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of new crude distillation capacity, representing more than a tenth of global demand, to come on steam between 2013 to 2018, substantially more than the forecasted increase in crude production capacity and global demand growth.

The agency said that changes would be already felt from the third quarter of 2013, as global refinery runs may rise by more than two million bpd on the back of increased processing by China, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

The IEA also added that global crude supply could struggle to keep up with refining demand because of seasonal maintenance in the North Sea.

However, the agency made little change to its global demand and supply forecasts for this year, saying that demand growth is expected to gain momentum through the year, rising from a low of 215,000 bpd year-on-year in the second quarter of 2013 to 1.1 million bpd or 1.2 per cent year-on-year by the fourth quarter, as the economy strengthens. Annual global oil consumption is forecast to expand by 785,000 bpd in 2013, to 90.6 million bpd, roughly unchanged since last month`s report.

On the supply front, the IEA said that the Organisation of Oil Producing Countries (Opec) crude oil supply rose by 135,000 bpd in May to 30.89 million bpd a seven month high due to higher output from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE and Kuwait, and despite lower production from Iraq, Libya and Nigeria. It said that Opec would need to produce only 29.8 million bpd in the second half of 2013 to balance the market.

Meanwhile, Opec predicted that global oil demand will grow more quickly in the rest of 2013, and indicated that the group can keep pumping more oil than the output target it retained at its May 31 meeting, without oversupplying the market. Opec, in a monthly report, forecast world oil demand to expand by 900,000 bpd in the second half, up from 700,000 bpd in the first six months of 2013.

US crude oil production grew by more than one million barrels a day last year, the largest increase in the world and in US history. In the latest sign of the shale revolution remaking world energy markets, crude production in the US jumped 14 per cent last year to 8.9 million barrels a day, according to the newly released Statistical Review of World Energy.

The wave of new crude flowing in oil fields from North Dakota to south Texas, helped keep the global market adequately supplied and helped markets weather declining oil production elsewhere in the world.

In volume terms, last year`s US production gain of 1.04 million bpd surpassed the earlier biggest annual increase of 640,000 bpd, which was recorded in 1967. Most of this new production is coming from dense shale-rock formations, such as the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. In recent years, the oil industry has developed techniques to hydraulically fracture, or frack, these shales, freeing up previously trapped oils.

Despite rising US production, the nation remains a large crude importer. However, it is bringing in fewer barrels than at any time since the mid-1990s. That is freeing up some traditional suppliers to ship their barrels elsewhere and satisfy rising demand in Asia and Latin America.

However, this surge in US oil output is expected to have only a modest impact on global prices. The US the third-largest global crude producer, behind Saudi Arabia and Russia still pumps only about one of every 10 barrels worldwide. What`s more, restrictions on exporting crude oil from the US have muffled its potential impact.

In the New York market, Brent crude oil rose on June 13, reversing an earlier decline after US data showed stronger-thanexpected retail sales and a fall in jobless claims, although subdued global energy demand limited oil`s rebound. Brent crude rose 41 cents to $103.90 a barrel after falling as low as $102.75.

Prices have declined from a 2013 high near $120 reached on February 8.

Earlier, oil fell on reports indicating weak demand, including a lowered forecast for global economic growth this year by the World Bank. The IEA said that modest economic growth was limiting oil demand worldwide, and some developed economies would see absolute declines in oil consumption in 2013.

Copper COPPER slid to a six-week low on June 13 as fears that central banks may curb stimulus programmes earlier than previously expected outweighed concerns about supply disruption and delay at two large copper mines.

Copper, which is down 11 per cent this year, later extended losses in electronic trading to reach a low of $7,011.25 a tonne, its weakest since May 3.

Earlier on June 12 in the London market, copper had risen from its lowest level in almost six weeks, as concerns over supply tightness increased after the owner of the world`s secondlargest mine declared force majeure on copper deliveries.

Keeping gains in check, though, was a deepening economic slowdown in big metal-consuming nations in Asia.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. declared force majeure on deliveries of copper concentrate from its Grasberg mine in Indonesia, where work has been suspended after a May accident that killed 28 people. Freeport said the production halt has curbed output by some 80 million pounds of copper, and it is not clear when Grasberg will be reopened.

Three-month copper closed at $7,120 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, up almost one per cent from $7,065 at the close on June 11. It is still down around 10 per cent so far this year. Weighing on metal prices, export growth throughout Asia has sagged in recent months on slackening demand from the United States, Europe and China, while leading indicators are also pointing to weaker factory activity in the coming months.