Commodities: WTI, natural gas futures clobbered

Commodity prices slumped with energy futures pacing losses amid reports of an unexpected build in US oil stocks, forecasts for warmer-than-usual temperatures, concerns around the outlook for demand as well as for the Greenback.

By 2205 GMT, the Bloomberg commodity index was at a fresh 52-week low of 80.26 even as the US dollar spot index dipped 0.30% to 97.1480, which was just off a 52-week high.

Within the former, NYMEX natural gas futures for delivery in January fared worst, skidding lower by 6.90% to $3.56/MMBtu.

In parallel, similarly-dated West Texas Intermediate was down by 4.02% to $49.14 a barrel. February Brent meanwhile was down by 2.52% to $58.76 and in the vicinity of its 200-week moving average.

Reports citing private consultancy Genscape said US oil inventories increased by over 1.0m barrels a day between 11-14 December.

To take note of, on 12 December, the US Department of Energy projected an increase in the country's crude oil output from 2018's level of 10.9m b/d to 12.1m b/d.

The DoE also marked down its forecast for the price of Brent oil by $11 a barrel to $61.