Shares of commodities producers climbed as fears about the possibility of war involving North Korea receded somewhat. "Investors and market participants are saying: 'OK, war isn't right around the corner and Donald Trump is clearly not as hotheaded as some had feared," said Oliver Pursche, chief market strategist at broker dealer Bruderman Brothers. While Kim Jong Un remains unpredictable, the North Korean leader could respond to Mr. Trump's new willingness to leave the door open to diplomacy, Mr. Pursche said. Shares of Teck Resources fell after state-owned China Investment sold a large part of its stake in the Canadian miner. A Standard & Poor's/Dow Jones index of metals prices had its largest gain in August of any August since 1995, helped by the weaker dollar, Chinese demand and supply disruptions. China Molybdenum shares rose to a multiyear high after analysts at brokerage Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of the miner with a buy rating, noting that it was the world's No. 2 cobalt ore operator after buying a majority stake in the Tenke mine in Congo last year. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Monex, a firm that advertised its gold derivative products on television, with defrauding more than 3,000 customers of $290 million in one of the largest precious-metals fraud cases ever.

• [Editor:Wang Linyan]