Commodities: Iron ore, energy futures well bid

The commodities market reacted coolly to the attacks in Brussels, with April gold futures trading higher by barely 0.20% to $1,246.70 per ounce on COMEX.

Platinum was the exception within the precious metals patch on Tuesday, with spot prices rising 1.01% to $992.40 per ounce.

Three-month copper futures on the LME edged lower by 0.3% to $5,053 per metric tonne by the close.

To take note of, according to Macquarie its latest China copper survey revealed positive signals for that market.

However, "it is still unclear whether demand growth is more than seasonally driven, but expectations toward demand recovery seem to be building with positive macro numbers," the Australian broker said in a research report sent to clients.

Iron ore futures were in favour again, advancing by 2.3% to $58.82 a tonne, according to Metal Bulletin.

Going forward there were "strong expectations" of further production ramp-ups at Chinese steel mills, "which bode well for iron ore demand but not necessarily steel pricing," Macquarie said, citing the conclusions of its latest proprietary survey.

Front-month Brent crude oil futures on ICE finished the session with gains of 0.312% to $41.67 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate was down 0.460% to 41.33 as of 18:22GMT.

That was despite reports on Tuesday indicating that Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria would support a decision by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to freeze output when they met in April.

NYMEX-traded RBOB gasoline and natural gas futures on the other hand found a decent bid, registering gains of 2.21% and 1.31%, respectively, to hit $149.12 per gallon and $1.85/MMBtu each.

Corn futures for delivery in May 2016 on the Chicago Board of Trade advanced 0.07% to $369.75 per bushel.

On the ICE, May 2016 cocoa futures fell 1.20% to $3,035 per metric tonne.

Live cattle futures were also unloved, with the June 2016 contract retreating 1.35% to $126.13 per pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.