Commodities: WTI futures reverse course to trade higher, lacklustre trading in copper

Commodities traded slightly lower on Monday, with a stronger US dollar appearing to offset news of tax cuts in China.

Selling in natural gas futures was particularly noteworthy, with the November contract on NYMEX dropping 3.42% to $3.14/MMBtu.

Crude oil futures were also lower throughout most of the afternoon. West Texas Intermediate for prompt month delivery hit an intraday low at $68.27, although by 1931 BST they had turned around and were advancing by 0.19% to $69.25 a barrel amid ongoing headlines around the geopolitical tensions with Saudi.

Triggering an initial move lower perhaps, on 19 October Baker Hughes reported that the US oil rig count had risen by four to 873 during the latest reference week.

Also weighing on futures, in an interview with TASS, Saudi oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih, downplayed speculation that the Kingdom might use crude as a weapon, as it did in 1973.

However, Al-Falih did emphasise that as Saudi and other producers ramped-up output to help compensate for reduced Iranian exports, so too their spare capacity was shrinking.

Among metals, three-month copper finished up at $6,242 per metric tonne following an open from $6,226.

Even so, traders at Sucden Financial characterised trading on the LME as "muted".

"Muted markets for most of the day after copper disappointed early in the day with a brief taste of life above 6300 on a couple of occasions but never showing conviction. Overall it feels as if these metals want to look lower within recent ranges," they said.

Agricultural futures on the other hand were mostly higher. ICE-traded cocoa #2 futures for December delivery were ahead by 2.70% to $80.02 a barrel while similarly-dated cocoa was adding 2.68% to $2,220 a tonne.

From a bird's eye view, the US dollar spot index was climbing 0.390% to 95.9960, alongside a dip of 0.20% for the Bloomberg commodity index to 85.78.