Commodities: Gold positions back near record highs on Brexit worries, oil rebounds

A large rally in crude oil futures sent the Bloomberg Commodity Index sharply higher, alongside considerable gains for soft commodities, while gold drifted lower as worries around a possible Brexit ebbed on Friday.

Front month West Texas Intermediate futures jumped 3.83% to finisg at $47.98 per barrel on NYMEX, with Brent tacking on 4.20% to $49.17 per barrel.

July 2016 NYMEX heating oil futures were also quite strong, rising by 4.13% to $1.4817 per gallon.

Gains for oil futures came despite the latest weekly data from Baker Hughes revealing a third back-to-back rise in the US oil rig count, which was up by nine to 337.

The Bloomberg commodity index advanced 1.70% to 88.72 as the US dollar spot index slipped 0.38% to 94.21.

Base metals were generally well-bid, with three-month LME-traded coper futures closing in the green by 0.2% to $4,566 per metric tonne.

Similarly-dated lead futures advanced 1.6% to $1,717.00 per metric tonne and those for nickel were up by 2.0% to $9,012.50 per tonne.

Three-month tin and primary aluminium also ended the day slightly higher.

Agricultural commodities were mostly higher, with robusta coffee futures on Euronext LIFFE closing 2.2% higher ar $1,649 per tonne, feed wheat up by 0.9% to £109.50 per tonne and white sugar futures advancing 0.3% to $533.60 per tonne.

Cotton No.2 futures gained 2.0% to $6.457/lb. by the end of trading on the ICE.

Cocoa futures were also higher, rising by 1.5% to $3,113.00 per tonne in ICE trading.

CME Live cattle futures lost 0.71% to $1.1255/lb..

September 2016 corn on the Chicago Board of Trade added 2.85% to end at $4.4275 per bushel, with the wheat contract rising 1.85% to $4.8125 per bushel.

Gold futures slipped 0.28% to 1,294.80 on COMEX as worries surrounding the likelihood of Brexit ebbed, but July 2016 silver was up by 0.63% to $17.52/oz..

Money managers increased their net long positions in financial derivatives tied to the price of gold by 29.0% to 240,862 contracts in the week to 14 June, according to the latest data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, near the August 2011 all-time high of 253,653.

Spot platinum drifted 0.08% lower to $969.90/oz..