While equities had another good week in most markets (Europe fell for the first time in four weeks), the real stars were commodities with gold and copper notching up good gains as 'risk on' returned to fashion among investors and speculators.

Gold jumped more than 4% last week, thanks to a surge on Thursday and Friday, and is up around 11% for 2012 so far.

Silver is up 22% from the start of the year, surely a good sign that the fears of late 2011 about the health of banks and the eurozone have eased for the time being.

Silver jumped nearly 7% last week alone while gold has had its best start to a year for three decades, according to Bloomberg data.

Copper also had a solid gain and oil finished up more than 1%, the first weekly gain this year and despite a fall on Friday.

Sugar prices are up 4% this month while US beef and orange juice prices have also surged.

But grains are weaker, led by soybeans which are off 1.3%, despite those fears about drought in South American growing areas.

The weakness in the US dollar, which lost ground against the euro (and the Aussie currency), was the major driver for commodity markets, and the continuing easing in tensions in the eurozone, especially among banks.

The Reuters/Jeffries CRB Index is up 4% for the year so far. Last week's statement from the US Federal Reserve pushing out a rate rise a year or more into 2014 (but that can change quickly) helped boost the appeal of risky investments.

Gold futures advanced Friday, leaving behind early-session losses as a lower dollar and safe-haven buying ahead of the weekend supported prices.

The early price weakness was met with buying interest that quickly pushed prices higher, a good sign for gold's short-term gain prospects, analysts said.

Comex February gold futures rose $US5.50, or 0.3% in New York on Friday to end at $US1,732.20, the metal's best settlement since early December.

It was gold's third straight session of gains and one that took weekly gains to 4.1%.

Comex March copper fell Friday by one US cent to end at $US3.89 a pound. Copper gained 4% on the week.

Comex silver for March delivery rose 5c on Friday to settle at $US33.79 an ounce. Silver jumped 6.7% on the week.

And crude-oil futures closed lower Friday after the US 4th quarter GDP figures left investors unhappy (they are not as strong as the forecasts had claimed they would be).

Nymex crude futures for March delivery fell 14cin New York, or 0.1%, lower at $US99.56 a barrel.

On the week, however, oil gained 1.3%.

In London, March Brent crude rose 67c, or 0.6%, to end at $US111.46 a barrel.

Stockmarkets generally had another good week, although there was some selling in Europe on Friday on nerves about a Greek debt deal which now might be resolved by the EU summit tonight, our time.

US markets finished mostly lower on Friday, but a late surge in financial shares helped the Standard & Poor's 500 preserve a fourth week of gains.

The easing of fears about the health of European banks and hopes for a deal on Greek debt helped send banks higher in New York.

And, expect another boost this week if the Facebook IPO happens as widely tipped in US media at the weekend.

Details of the sale expected Wednesday night, our time.

A Facebook float will boost bullish sentiment on Wall Street and offset worries about the economy.

The Dow rose 3.6% for the month so far, but lost 74.17 points or 0.6% on Friday to end at 12,660.46.

That was a loss of 0.5% for the week, the first weekly loss in four.

Up 4.7% for the year so far, the S&P 500 Index ended the day down 2.1 points, or 0.2%, at 1,316.33.

That was a tiny gain of 0.1% for the week.

And Nasdaq ended the week up 1.1% and rose 11.27 points, or 0.4% on Friday to close at 2,816.55.

Nasdaq is up 8.1% for the month and year so far and the probable float of Facebook will boost those gains.

The Australian market will start the week on a flat note after futures trading ended five points higher at 4255 overnight Friday.

That was after the local market ended Friday at a seven-week high led by the resources and materials sector.

The ASX200 index closed up 17.1 points on Friday, or 0.4%, at 4,288.4 while the All Ordinaries index closed up 19.4 points, or 0.4% firmer at 4,348.5 points.

It was a fourth successive week of gains, with the ASX200 adding 1.2%. It's up more tan 5.5% so far this month.

That's the longest winning streak since the middle of February, 2011.

The Aussie dollar had another strong week and the dollar edged up to $US1.0659 in overseas trade early Saturday, our time.

That was up from the $US1.0611 finish in Australia on Friday.

That's a rise of 2 USc in a week from the previous Friday's close of $US1.04842.

The dollar is up 14 USc from the recent low of just over 92 USc hit last October.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets traded for only part of the week or not at all because of the New Year festivities.

In Hong Kong two days of trading saw the Hang Seng Index add 1.9%. Australia gained and Tokyo ended the week up 0.9%.

South Korea's Kospi Index rose 0.8% for the week as 4th quarter GDP came in under forecasts.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.9% for the week.

European markets ended the week on an off note and down around 0.2%, with London up 0.1%, but down from the week's highs.

Germany's Dax, rose 1.7%, Italy was up 1.5%, and the CAC 40 in Paris lost ground and closed off 0.1%

Copyright Australasian Investment Review.
AIR publishes a weekly magazine. Subscriptions are free at www.aireview.com.au