Commodities: WTI lower on talk of waivers from Iran sanctions

Commodities were trading on a mixed note at the start of the week with energy in particular in the spotlight.

According to Bloomberg, US officials were said to be in talks with countries asking for exemptions from sanctions banning oil purchases from Iran which were set to go into effect on 4 November.

In reaction to the news, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for prompt month delivery hit an intraday low of $73.07 a barrel on NYMEX and as of 1914 BST were down by 0.26% to $74.15 a barrel on NYMEX.

Meanwhile, natural gas futures for November delivery were jumping by 3.82% to $3.26/MmBtu and trading at a 52-week high, amid reports that the EPIC natural gas liquids pipeline would temporarily shift towards carrying crude oil to help alleviate a bottleneck in the Permian basin.

Precious metals on the other hand were under pressure as the US dollar gained altitude, with gold on COMEX slipping 1.27% to $1,190.30/oz..

December copper however was up by 0.31% to $2.7715 a pound. In he background, there was some 'market chatter' around speculation that European companies were pressing he US Treasury to dial back on sanctions against Russian aluminium producer Rusal.

In the agricultural space, three-month ICE-traded cocoa was adding 3.06% to $2,086 per metric tonne while cotton #2 was up by 1.85% to $0.7751 a pound, although wheat was down by 1.39% at $5.1375 a bushel.