Commodities: Crude lower, gold steady ahead of Trump's speech to Congress

Crude-oil futures slipped lower Tuesday as traders focused on Opec-led output cuts amid a global supply glut, and increasing production from the US, with safe-haven gold steady ahead of US President Donald Trump's speech before Congress.

At about 15:14 GMT, Nymex-priced West Texas Intermediate crude was down 1.04% to $53.49 a barrel, and Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent fell 0.95% to $55.40 a barrel.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said crude prices had again slipped after it was reported non-OPEC members were lagging behind on their output cuts, while Iran had ruled out the prospect of extending the deal into the second-half of 2016.

"It has been reported that the latest February Opec output numbers may have seen a 55k rise to around 32.24m barrels per day, which would appear to suggest that support for the output cap appears to be slipping away," added Hewson.

Mike van Dulken and Henry Croft, both analysts at Accendo Markets, noted that crude had sold off to support Tuesday as a surging US dollar hampered investor sentiment.

"Bulls will be hoping for a US crude bounce from $54 rising lows support while Brent crude’s early test of $56 is just that, with a recovery in the offing to mount a fresh test of resistance later today," said van Dulken and Croft.

On Comex, gold was down 0.2% to $1256.30 an ounce, with silver down 0.09% to $18.40 an ounce and copper up 0.02% to 269.85 cents a pound.

Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, said growing uncertainty across the board and rising political risks have bolstered the appetite for safe-haven assets such as gold.

Back-in-fashion, gold remained bullish on daily price charts, he said, with further upside expected in the short-term if the dollar continued to depreciate.

"With investors maintaining a cautious approach ahead of President Trump's speech to Congress this evening, bulls may take advantage of the anxiety to elevate gold prices higher back above $1260."

Van Dulken and Henry Croft said the yellow metals' rebound from $1251 on Monday was the result of hawkish Fed speak, which spooked investors to the safe-haven asset.

Meantime, three-month industrial metals on London Metals Exchange were higher. Tin was the biggest gainer at 1.97%, followed by zine up 1.4%, copper up 1.18% and aluminum up 0.96%.

Among agriculturals, Chicago Board of Trade-priced corn was up 2.92% to 379.0 cents a bushel, with wheat up 1.71% to 446.25 cents a bushel.

On ICE, cocoa was down 1.92% to $1944 a MT, with cotton No.2 up 0.24% to 76.30 ents a pound. Live cattle rose 0.35% to 115.90 cents a pound.