05/08/2013 (Borneo Post) - The US non-payroll rose 162,000 in July which was quite unexpectedly among market traders.

Jobless claims have been lowering for past weeks and the unemployment rate has also dropped to 7.4 per cent from 7.6 per cent in June.

Market speculations still encompass the tapering of Fed stimulus before year-end which have caused much speculation in gold and crude prices.

Japan official – Takeshi Fujimaki is worried about US’ decision in cutting stimulus as this could burst the Japanese Government Bonds bubble.

Gold prices went down last week and were very volatile on Friday.

The yellow metal closed at 1,312 regions after it pulled up from intra-week’s low 1,282 levels.

This week, we foresee the market may go into some technical short-covering before another decline follows.

Looking ahead, it may test 1,325 regions again before making another slump to 1,270 bottoms.

However, the trend should not break above the 1,340 resistances as this could signal a turning up the trend.

WTI Crude prices have formed a double-top pattern on day-chart by failing to jump above 109 resistances.

Moving forward, we foresee the market could be trading from 104 to 108.50 ranges while prone to weakness.

For past week, the crude prices have been dependent on Wednesday data on Crude inventories reported by EIA.

If the data indicates fall in supply inventories in coming week again, beware the market might jump above 109 and reach 114 in due time.

Crude Palm Oil Futures (FCPO) on Bursa Derivatives rebound and closed higher on a weekly basis.

The current uptrend could be mainly due to bargain buying and correlation in the strength of soybean oil and energy prices.

The October contract month closed at 2,257 for the weekend.

This week, we foresee light trading activities ahead of the Raya seasons and range is expected to move from 2,210 to 2,300 regions.