Commodities: US oil stockpiles grow despite hit from hurricane Michael

The commodities complex came under pressure on Wednesday, weighed down by a larger-than-expected build in US crude oil inventories and a stronger Greenback.

As of 1802 BST, the US dollar spot index was advancing 0.35% to 95.3760, alongside a 0.28% dip in the Bloomberg commodity index to 86.78.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy's statistical arm, commercial oil inventories surged by 6.5m barrels (consensus: 2.2m) over the week ending on 12 October to reach 416.4m barrels.

The inventory build took place despite the hit to domestic output from Hurricane Michael and a slight increase in refinery inputs, said Caroline Bain, Capital Economics's chief commodities economist.

As much as a fifth of US production from the Gulf of Mexico was shuttered ahead of the storm, she explained.

Wednesday's EIA figures saw West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for November delivery give up 2.38% to $70.21 a barrel on NYMEX, with similarly-dated Brent down by 1.39% to $80.28 a barrel.

Natural gas futures were the exception in the energy space, rising by 1.36% to $3.28/MMBtu.

Most base metals contracts ended lower but off their weakest levels of the session amid what traders at Sucden Financial described as "moderate" turnover, with volatility picking-up as the afternoon progressed and equity markets gave back some of the prior day's gains.

Against that backdrop, three-month copper futures on the LME ended at $6,219 per metric tonne after starting the day from $6,230 per tonne.

Precious metals were uniformly lower alongside.

It was a mixed picture in the agricultural space, with December wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade retreating by 1.19% to $5.1725 a bushel but three-month cocoa putting on 1.0% to $2,216 per metric tonne in ICE trading.