Commodities: Gold, metals fly on defensive appeal after Trump win

Metals futures were mostly higher in the aftermath of US President-elect Donald Trump's ballot-box win over Democrat wannabe Hillary Clinton, with safe-haven gold doing especially well.

Trump's victory -- surprising mainstream pollsters and matched by Republican success in the US Senate and US House -- was confirmed about 07:30 GMT.

"Gold surged with ferocity on Wednesday as Trump’s victory triggered risk aversion which encouraged investors to frantically pile into safe-haven assets," said FXTM's Lukman Otunuga.

Just prior to 14:00 GMT, Comex-priced gold soared 2.46% higher to $1,305 an ounce. Silver surged 2.39% to $18.80 an ounce, and copper gained 2.21% to 243.25 cents a pound.

"Dollar's weakness amid dimming US rate hike expectations always played a key part which saw gold prices clipping the highs of $1337."

Otunuga added that gold could gain further on the back of dollar softness and its defensive appeal amid widespread market uncertainty.

"A breakout and decisive close above $1308 could encourage a further incline towards $1320."

OANDA's Craig Erlam noted that Trump's well-received victory speech appeared to soothe some concerns in the market.

"Uncertainty remains over what kind of a US he plans to lead and the Federal Reserve is unlikely to provide the same assistance that the Bank of England did at this stage," he added.

"It will be very interesting to see whether they (US Federal Reserve) still intend to raise interest rates next month, as they have alluded to recently."

Meantime, Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said markets have slashed forecasts of a US interest rate rise in December to 50-50, from 80-20.

Meantime, London Metals Exchange's three-month prices on industrial metals were mostly firmer.

Copper was up 2.7% to $5235.5 a MT, aluminum rose 0.23% to $1731 a MT and zine gained 0.41% to $2478 a MT. Tin, however, fell 1.37% to $21,545 a MT.

In energy, Nymex-quoted West Texas Intermediate was down 0.42% to $44.79 a barrel and Intercontinental Exchange-listed Brent was down 0.13% to $45.98 a barrel.

Looking at agricultural commodities, Chicago Board of Trade-listed corn was down 0.64% to 352 cents a bushel, and wheat dropped 0.9% to 411.5 cents a bushel.

ICE-priced cocoa was down 0.2% to $2460 a MT. Cotton No.2 ebbed 0.22% to 68.6 cents a pound. Live cattle firmed 0.93% to 102.6 cents a pound.