Miners Vale (VALE) (FCX) (RIO) (TCK) Trade Up

Shares of diversified miners Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX), Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO), Teck Resources (NYSE:TCK) and Vale (NYSE:VALE) all traded up on Wednesday as gold, silver and most other commodity prices climbed on the day.

June gold climbed $15.80 to $1,495.80 per troy ounce, a 1.1 percent gain on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The less traded May contract was up $15.80, or 1.1 percent, to $1,495.60 a troy ounce.

The silver contract for May delivery gained $1.61, or 4.8 percent, to $35.10 a troy ounce.

A weaker dollar was the major catalyst for gold and silver specifically, and commodities in general on Wednesday.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $3.19, or 3.3 percent, to settle at $100.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude rose $2.31 in London, or 2.1 percent, to settle at $112.30 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of six currencies, traded at 75.438, down a little from 75.441 late Tuesday. That was also a factor in gold and silver prices going up.

July platinum was $18.90 higher to end at $1,779.90 per troy ounce, while June palladium jumped $22.95 to $737.20 per troy ounce.

For base metals, July copper rose 11 cents to $4.11 per pound in New York trade, while three-month contracts for the metal were $262 higher to $9,061 per ton on the London Metal Exchange.

Aluminium inventories increased in LME warehouses, adding 1,325 tons to a new record high of 4.71 million tons. Even so, three-month contracts for aluminium still were up $55 to $2,556 per ton.

Zinc was up $97 to $2,188 per ton in London and lead was $136 higher to $2,445 per ton.

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) closed Wednesday at $48.62, gaining $1.79, or 3.82 percent. Vale closed at $30.32, up $0.46, or 1.54 percent. Rio Tinto ended the session at $68.22, rising $0.83, or 1.23 percent. Teck Resources closed at $50.20, jumping $2.08, or 4.32 percent.