WELLINGTON/SINGAPORE (July 24): Asian stocks slipped, heading for their third weekly drop this month, as copper slumped to a six-year low and gold slid to the lowest since 2010.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3 percent by 10:27 a.m. in Tokyo, with technology and mining shares driving the gauge down 1 percent this week. Copper lost 0.7 percent as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecast further declines. U.S. oil was below $49 a barrel after capping a 20 percent loss from its recent high on Thursday. Nasdaq 100 Index futures climbed 0.2 percent after Amazon.com Inc. soared 18 percent in extended trading on a surprise profit.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index extended losses at a 13-year low last session as concern over supply gluts sent metals and crops tumbling. The focus will shift to next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting as a stronger dollar has aggravated those declines. A gauge of Chinese manufacturing due Friday may confirm the sector contracted a fifth straight month in July, with similar measures for Japan, the U.S. and euro area due.

“With the U.S. dollar likely to keep rising as the Fed prepares to raise rates, there’s still some sort of weakness to come in the commodity space,” said Angus Gluskie, managing director at White Funds Management Ltd. in Sydney, who oversees $550 million. “The earnings outlook in the U.S. is also somewhat subdued as a result of the strong U.S. dollar. We’re not likely to see a massive rally in the next few months.”

Dollar Movements

Japan’s Topix index lost 0.2 percent as Korean stocks sank 1 percent. While Amazon’s results, which included better-than- estimated second-quarter sales, bolstered U.S. index futures after markets closed, it was a different picture during the normal trading day. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.6 percent as materials and energy shares slumped. Disappointing earnings from Caterpillar Inc. and 3M Co. sent their stocks down at least 3.6 percent. The earnings season has been spotty for U.S. companies so far, with sluggish demand overseas damping returns for some multinational companies.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has held on to its gains this week, trading close to a three-month high with odds the Fed will raise rates in September for the first time since 2006 at 50 percent. Commodity currencies, including the Brazilian real, and the Canadian and Australian dollars, have weakened at least 0.2 percent, while New Zealand’s dollar rallied after the central bank dropped a reference to its level being unjustified.

Spot gold fell 0.5 percent to the lowest in five years and headed for the longest run of weekly losses since 2012 as a drop in U.S. jobless claims supported the case for higher Fed rates. Copper in London skid as Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the biggest publicly traded producer of the metal, said it is weighing asset sales and the prospect of curtailing operations in the face of lower commodity prices. Nickel fell 1.4 percent.

West Texas Intermediate rose 0.9 percent, trimming its 4 percent weekly decline. U.S. inventories unexpectedly rose by 2.47 million barrels last week, a government report showed on Wednesday. Stockpiles, which had been forecast to fall, remain almost 100 million barrels above the five-year average.