Oil Prices headed for a first weekly loss in four weeks on Thursday, the 10th of March 2011. At the time of market closure, Brent was at USD $ 113.46 a barrel, down from its previous day price of USD $ 114.93. WTI was at USD $ 102.70 a barrel, down from Wednesday’s price of USD $ 104.38 a barrel. The fall in prices was due to a slew of weak economic news, which resulted in a fall in spot demand of oil, hence leading to a fall in prices. However, traders were apprehensive about oil prices rising, since it is believed that OPEC has already exhausted its spare capacity to fill in the supply disruption from Libya, and there have been protests scheduled in Saudi Arabia today. There were also reports that Saudi security forces had shot and wounded three Shiite protestors while they were dispersing Shiite protesters calling for the release of nine Shiite prisoners. Unrest in Saudi Arabia would lead to a severe supply bottleneck, resulting in escalated prices.
Following the ease in oil prices, gold and silver prices registered a decrease too due to a decline in investors’ fears about losing out on escalated oil prices. American Eagle gold closed at USD $ 1477.11 an ounce, down from USD $ 1494.35 an ounce, while London Fixing, Spot Price of Silver was at £ 21.7895 an ounce, down from its price on Wednesday of £ 22.2859 an ounce