In the energy market, crude oil for September delivery [the new front-month contract] fell 21 cents from Tuesday to close at $65.40/barrel. August reformulated gasoline rose 2.63 cents to finish at $1.8383/gallon.

In the currency market, the dollar fell against the euro. Late Wednesday, the euro was trading at $1.4214 vs. $1.4199 on Tuesday.

It was a rather uneventful session during Wednesday trading on the Canadian Markets with the fluctuating price of commodities effecting individual sectors. For the tale of the tape; the TSX Exchange gave back 0.64%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.79% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.79% with the advancers beating out the decliners by a 395 to 354 margin on 152 million shares traded.

Gold got off to a slow start in Hong Kong and trended down through London but shot up around 11 a.m. in New York, hitting its intraday high near $955 two hours later. From 1 p.m. through the Globex close, the yellow metal retreated somewhat, finishing at $951.10/oz., up $2.10. Overnight, gold is trending higher.

Base metals were mostly down on Tuesday. Copper fell 0.68 cents to close at $2.4374/lb. Nickel dropped more than 21 cents to finish at $7.1320/lb. Zinc lost three-quarters of a penny, ending at $0.7357/lb. Aluminum added less than a quarter of a cent, closing at $0.7634/lb., while lead moved to $0.7493/lb., down more than a penny from the previous session.

In the energy market, crude oil for August delivery rose 74 cents from Monday to close at $64.72/barrel. August reformulated gasoline climbed more than 2 cents to finish at $1.812/gallon.

In the currency market, the dollar rose slightly against the euro. Late Tuesday, the euro was trading at $1.4199 vs. $1.4226 on Monday.

Gold traded sideways through Hong Kong and most of London then surged up to an intraday high of $953 at around 9 a.m. in New York only to completely erase the gains less than an hour later. From 10 a.m. through the Comex close gold showed a steep downward trend but reversed course and made up most of the day’s losses on the Globex, finishing at $949.00/oz., down $0.10. Overnight, gold has moved lower.

As is the norm of late, news flow slowed to a drip during Friday trading on the Canadian Markets with the headline on the junior front being a proposed three way merger. For the tale of the tape; the TSX Exchange added 0.63%, while the TSX Gold Index tacked on 1% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, gave back 0.20% with the advancers beating out the decliners by a 430 to 360 margin on 176 million shares traded.