A number of commodities remain under pressure with corn, crude, and silver lower. Gold bucked the trend, up $10, as oil and silver suffered record drops.



Reuters reports Oil heads for biggest weekly loss on record

Oil erased early gains and turned negative in late afternoon trade as the dollar rose, extending Thursday's shock-inducing collapse, when Brent fell as much as $12, a record, in a furious, high-volume session that saw waves of selling as key technical levels were broken.



Selling pressure on oil and other commodities came on several fronts this week, with investors weighing factors from the death of Osama bin Laden to the impact of higher fuel and commodity costs on the economies of consumer nations to monetary policy in major economies.



Brent crude fell $1.37 to $109.43 a barrel by 2:56 p.m. EDT in heavy trade, with volumes twice the 30-day moving average. The contract was down $16.25 a barrel for the week, on track for its largest weekly decline ever.



U.S. crude futures settled down $2.62 at $97.18 a barrel, after trading at $102.38 following the release of supportive U.S. jobs data. U.S. crude ended down $16.75 for the week, the biggest weekly drop since the contract began trading in 1983.

West Texas Intermediate Daily Chart

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West Texas Intermediate Weekly Chart

Brent Daily Chart

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Margin Hikes on Crude Denied

Silver has biggest weekly drop since 1980

The thinly traded front-month silver contract had its worst week since late March, 1980. Silver for May delivery /quotes/comstock/21e!f1:si\k11 SIK11 -3.22% dropped 27% in the five-day period, its largest percent drop since that date. The most-active July contract /quotes/comstock/21e!f1:si

11 SIN11 -2.55% also dropped 27% on the week. Repeat margin increases spurred a stampede out of the metal. July silver fell 2.6% to settle at $35.29 per ounce on Friday. The May contract ended at $35.28 an ounce. The week's losses have shaved silver yearly gains to 14%.

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Folly of Buy-the-Dip Mentality on Parabolic Spikes