OIL: Oil prices rose as much as 5.6 percent to nearly $40 a barrel on Monday after weekend violence between Israel and Hamas, reminding traders of the geopolitical risk to crude supplies from the Middle East. "Some news around Israel and Gaza is pushing the market higher," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity derivatives sales manager at broker Newedge in Tokyo. "It's a terrible situation and it just seems to be again causing major concerns for all the markets," said Peter McGuire, managing director at Commodity Warrants Australia.

BASE METALS: Copper futures prices in London and Shanghai rose 2 percent on Monday as traders hunted bargains following gains in oil prices and a fall in the dollar. "Copper prices rose in London this morning as traders entered the market with expectation that prices should have support under $2,800 level, and partly cheered by a rising oil price," said a LME dealer in Shanghai.

PRECIOUS METALS: Gold rose more than 2 percent on Monday to its strongest since early October after violence between Israel and Hamas pushed up oil prices on fears of supply disruptions, and spurred safe-haven buying in bullion. "From a gold perspective, prices are certainly likely to move higher on any tensions, wars and uncertainty. But what was more surprising was the timing of the violence between Israel and Hamas," said Adrian Koh, analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

GRAINS: U.S. corn and soy futures struck multi-month highs on Monday on rising oil prices and expectations of poor crop weather in South America. "Soybeans will maintain higher levels because of hot and dry weather in South America. Many traders expect strong soybean buying ahead of the Chinese New Year," said Kazuhiko Saito, a strategist at Interes Capital Management Co. in Tokyo.

GLOBAL MARKET NEWS: The South Korean won struck a twomonth peak on Monday as a slow recovery in investor appetite for risk boosted some Asian currencies, while oil and gold prices surged on the flare-up of violence in the Middle East. "Rather than seeing a rebound on value, we want to see companies that can deliver growth in an environment that we have got," said Steven Robinson, a fund manager with Alleron Investment Management in Sydney.


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