Commodities: Oil futures see modest upticks, precious metals struggle
Updated : 18:36
Oil futures posted modest upticks on Thursday, but precious metals continued to falter.
At 1707 GMT, the Brent front-month futures contract was up 1.68% or 51 cents to $30.82 per barrel, while WTI rose 2.40% or 0.73 to $31.21, extending its premium to the global proxy benchmark achieved overnight.
Yann Quelenn, market strategist at Swissquote, said, “The medium-term technical structure remains clearly negative in a context of oil oversupply. Oil keeps riding the downtrend channel.
“Given the wider picture, crude oil has not shown signs of recovery and is holding way below its 200-Day Moving Average (setting up at $50). A very unlikely break of the resistance at $60.72 (last noted in July 2015) would confirm an underlying uptrend.”
Elsewhere, base metals also performed better with most futures contracts in positive territory on the London Metal Exchange. The three-month delivery futures contracts of copper (up 0.8%), primary aluminium (up 1.4%), lead (up 0.7%), nickel (up 4.2%) and zinc (up 1.7%) were trading higher just ahead of the LME close, but tin (down 0.3%) went against the trend.
Liz Grant, senior account executive at Sucden Financial, said, “LME metals traded narrowly and in very thin condition but prices were mostly up on the previous close. As we approach the January date prompt, nearby rates tightened particularly in the case of the lead contract.”
However, precious metals continued to struggle with the COMEX gold futures contract posting a decline of 0.43% or $4.70 to $1,082.40 an ounce, while spot gold was 1.01% or $11.08 lower at $1,082.51 an ounce.
Away from gold, COMEX silver reversed most of its overnight gains falling by 2.62% or 37 cents to $13.79 an ounce, while spot platinum fell 1.18% or $10.05 to $838.40 an ounce.
Finally, headline agricultural commodity futures were largely on a positive patch in early trading stateside. CBOT corn (up 0.14%), wheat (up 1.83%), ICE cocoa (up 1.35%) and CME live cattle (up 0.09%) contracts were all trading higher.