Commodities fell as Cyprus rekindled concern that Europe’s debt crisis may deepen, with copper dropping by the most in five months, pacing declines in industrial metals and oil. Rubber and wheat also slid while gold rose to a two-week high.
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials fell 0.8 percent at 11:16 a.m. Seoul time while copper for delivery in three months dropped as much as 2.7 percent, the biggest loss since Oct. 19, to a four-month low of $7,545.75 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. Rubber futures tumbled 3.8 percent to 272 yen in Tokyo, while crude futures for April delivery dropped 1.4 percent to $92.16 a barrel in New York, set for the biggest daily loss since March 1 on closing price basis. Wheat futures for May delivery lost 1 percent at $7.1475 a bushel in Chicago.

“The Cyprus issue is the biggest driver of sharp falls in commodities across the board as that is pushing the euro lower and the dollar higher,” Lelia Kim, a trader at Seoul-based Tong Yang Securities Inc., said by phone today. “Coupled with weak data out of the U.S., which is ruining recent recovery optimism, industrial metals are being hit hardest, while gold is rising on safe haven demand.”
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary U.S. consumer sentiment index for March fell to 71.8, the lowest level since December 2011, from 77.6 in February. The gauge was projected to increase to 78, according to the median estimate of 67 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Gold for immediate delivery advanced as much as 1.1 percent to $1,608.60 an ounce, the highest since Feb. 27, before trading at $,1594.89. The Dollar Index, a gauge that measures the strength of the greenback against six major rivals, jumped 0.7 percent to 82.838. The euro slid against the dollar to its lowest level since Dec. 10 and traded at $1.2903.