I. Precious Metals
Gold

Gold prices hovered above a four-month low on Friday and were on track for their biggest weekly fall since May after progress on U.S. tax reform fueled optimism about the U.S. economy and boosted the dollar. Stronger-than-expected U.S. employment data on Friday also demonstrated healthy economic growth and suggested the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week, as expected. Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,247.81 an ounce.
Gold's luster was tarnished amid geopolitical tensions, not only by its failure to react at all positively to Trump's contentious Jerusalem announcement but also to the tensions in North Korea.

Bullion stabilized somewhat on Friday, helped by technical rebound and weak earnings in the U.S. employment report with bulls now pinning their hopes on a dovish hike by the Federal Reserve next week. The U.S. Fed is expected next week to announce three rises in interest rates next year. After the employment report, the dollar extended gains to the fifth day, and Wall Street was boosted.

Silver

Silver was up 0.5 percent at $15.81 but down nearly 4 percent this week. It slipped to the key support of $15.6, a medium-term crossroad.

On technical front, silver breached below the lower band in December 2016 and July 2017, but steadied and rebounded from $15.6, a psychological support. In case that the level is crossed below, silver is expected to fall to $14.8 to $15 and with limited rebounding steam.

II. Commodities
Crude Oil

Oil prices rose on Friday, helped by rising Chinese crude demand and threats of a strike in Africa's largest oil exporter. Brent crude settled up $1.20 or 1.9 percent at $63.40 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up $57.36 a barrel, up 67 cents or 1.2 percent. But U.S. prices fell 1.7 percent on the week and Brent prices fell 0.5 percent amid concerns that rising U.S. production could undermine OPEC-led supply cuts.

China's crude oil imports rose to 37.04 million tonnes or 9.01 million barrels per day (bpd), the second highest on record, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. Booming demand will push China ahead of the United States as the world’s biggest crude importer this year.

A union in Nigeria, Africa's largest oil exporter, threatened a strike later this month. But drillers added two oil rigs in the week to Dec. 8, bringing the total count up to 751, the highest level since September, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. Hedge funds and money managers cut their bullish bets on U.S. crude in the week to Dec. 5, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday on fears of higher U.S. Production.

Copper

Copper prices rose on Friday after data showing a jump in Chinese imports of the metal fuelled expectations of stronger demand from the top consumer. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange ended up 0.1 percent at $6,571 a tonne from an earlier session high at $6,674.50.

China's unwrought copper imports in November were up more than 40 percent from the previous month to 4.24 million tonnes, a sign that winter production restrictions are driving up shipments. Copper concentrate imports rose 0.1 percent year-on-year to a new record high of 1.78 million tonnes in November.

China accounts for nearly half of global copper demand. Global copper demand is estimated at around 23 million tonnes this year. Property sales by floor area in China fell 6.0 percent in October from a year earlier, compared with a 1.5 percent decline in September. The decline was the biggest since the first two months of 2015.

Gains were capped by a rising dollar, that is on track for its biggest weekly rise in nearly six weeks.

Soybean

U.S. soybeans settled lower to a one-week low on Friday as concerns about a bumper crop in South America cutting into the U.S. share of the export market limited enthusiasm about the recent sales.

Consultancy AgRural on Friday raised its forecast for 2017-18 Brazil soybean production to 112.9 million tonnes from 110.2 million. And forecasts for some much needed rain in Argentina in the coming weeks added pressure to soybeans on Friday.

CBOT January soybean futures settled 2-1/4 cents lower at $9.89-3/4 a bushel. January soymeals were down $3.5 at $331.7 per short tonne. December soyoil ended up 0.29 cent at 33.60 cents per pound. The trading volume for soybean, soymeal and soyoil is expected to stand at 221,648 lots, 133,557 lots and 158,942 lots respectively.

Dealing Room, ICBC Beijing Branch
                         Lv Yan