Commodities: Risk aversion eases, sending gold futures lower

Risk aversion came down a notch at the start of the week following an uneventful weekend in terms of fresh developments out of the Korean peninsula and even after the UN Security Council refrained from slapping new sanctions on Pyongyang despite its latest missile tests.

Against that backdrop, the spot US dollar index was trading near its best levels of the session as of 1744 BST, at 92.13, even as the Bloomberg commodity index dipped 0.12% to trade at 85.09.

That slight bid for the Greenback sufficed to send December-dated gold futures lower by 1.09% to $1,310.70 on COMEX. Nevertheless, silver fared even worse, erasing 2.66% to close at $17.23/ozz..

Bulk metals on the other hand were mostly higher, with three-month copper up to $6,527 a metric as of the LME close, alongside big gains for similarly-dated lead, nickel and zinc futures.

Grain futures were mixed meanwhile, with CBoT-traded December 2017 corn down by 0.99% at $3.5125 a bushel, although cotton#2 and live cattle futures were higher, rising 0.36% to $0.6932 a pound and $1.1343 a pound respectively.

In the energy space it was a mixed bag, with West Texas Intermediate off by 0.42% to $49.68 a barrel evevn as NYMEX October natural gas futures jumped 3.77% to $3.14/MMBtu.

Losses for WTI materialised despite the latest weekly Baker Hughes rig count survey revealing the number of oil rigs in operation Stateside fell by seven to 749 in the week ending on 15 September.