Commodities : Platinum Rally Continues

Platinum futures prices rolled to life-of-contract highs for a second consecutive day Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange as a nervous market tried to anticipate South Africa’s response to the likelihood of increased sanctions.

In other markets, gold and silver lagged behind platinum’s swift run-up, Treasury bond futures finished strongly despite somewhat disappointing results in the final day of the Treasury’s refunding auction, and livestock was higher, while meat futures ranged from mixed to limit up.

South Africa supplies the West with 80% of its platinum, a strategic metal that enjoys widespread use in the West for both industrial and military purposes.

Analysts say increasingly strident calls for the United States and Great Britain to join Western Europe and approve further sanctions against South Africa has traders worried about retaliation.

“It looks like the West is determined to ostracize the South Africans, and they appear just as intent to show there will be a big price to pay,” said Gary Dorsch, senior analyst with G. H. Miller & Co. in Chicago. “This could be a very dangerous game.”