Brent crude pushed above $50, while gold and copper touched multi-week highs on Monday, as commodities benefited from a struggling dollar after a dismal U.S. jobs report crushed expectations for a near-term hike in U.S. interest rates.
The upbeat mood spread to China, the world’s top buyer of raw materials, which saw sharp gains in domestic commodity futures led by iron ore and steel.
A weaker dollar makes dollar-priced commodities such as gold and oil cheaper for holders of other currencies.
The dollar held near three-week lows versus a basket of currencies on Monday after falling 1.6 percent on Friday, when data revealed the smallest U.S. monthly employment increase since September 2010.
“The implied probability for a rate hike in June is zero and the probability for a July rate hike has been lowered significantly,” said Barnabas Gan, economist at OCBC Bank in Singapore.
Wall Street’s top banks unanimously expect the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged at a June 14-15 policy meeting, according to a Reuters poll on Friday following the jobs report.
