Commodities: Crude ends Q1 2017 well down as global glut continues

Crude-oil futures are a little lower on Friday afternoon, also ending the first quarter of 2017 some distance below where they began as the black liquid's global glut continues.

"It's not been a particularly good quarter for oil prices despite the agreed production quotas for Opec, and it's not hard to see why when you look at the rise in the US rig count since the beginning of this year," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The number of US rigs had risen to 809 from 658 between the back end of 2016 and the end of last week, a gain of more than 20%.

"This return of US shale, and record inventories has taken the edge off any expectation that oil producers will be able to engineer higher prices in the short term," said Hewson.

At 15:23 GMT, Nymex-priced WTI crude was down 0.1% to $50.30 a barrel, from $53.72 at 30 December 2016. Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent was 0.4% down to $52.75 a barrel, from $56.82 at 30 December 2016.

Oil has been caught in a now chronic supply, with Opec pledges on output more or less constantly in focus, alongside US shale production, rising US inventories and US rig counts.

Referring to WTI crude, SwissQuote said its bearish pressures had seemed to fade.

"The commodity had been located in a bearish trend since the commodity had been unable to mount a serious challenge to resistance at $55.24," it said, noting hourly support at $47.09.

Meanwhile on Comex, gold was up 0.02% to $1247.7 an ounce, with silver up 0.1% to $18.23 an ounce and copper down 0.77% to 265.1 cents a pound.

"Gold is getting stronger," said SwissQuote, expecting the safe-haven yellow metal to show further weakness.

"The momentum seems back to bullish despite some consolidation. Strong resistance is located at $1263. Hourly support can be found at $1224.10."

Hewson added that while UK stocks had a decent quarter -- helped by sterling weakness -- it had also been a decent three months for gold prices as investors mitigated risk.

"The yellow metal (is) up over 7% on the quarter, beating the gains of the Dow and S&P500 over the same period."

Three-month industrial metals on London Metals Exchange made gains for the most part. Copper added 0.83%, aluminum was up 0.61% and zinc rose 0.42%. Tin, however, fell 0.15%.