Commodities:Copper traders wary despite latest China factory PMI, Brent gains on supply data

Commodity prices found a bid at the start of the week after a key survey of Chinese factory conditions printed ahead of forecasts.

Survey compiler Caixin's manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers' Index rose from a reading of 49.9 for February to 50.8 in March, beating economists' forecast for a reading of 50.0.

Economists reacted cautiously to Monday's survey data in China, as did some traders.

Thus, by the end of the trading session, three-month copper futures on the LME had settled at $6,471 per metric tonne after starting from $6,540 per tonne and hitting an intra-day high of $6,545.

"Copper traded up to 6545 but sellers took advantage and by mid-morning in London we were trading $50 lower and it was a similar pattern of activity for the rest of the complex. LME turnover was moderate and 5pm closes were mostly up but well below the early highs," said analysts at Sucden Financial.

Meanwhile, as of 1819 BST, May cocoa on ICE was up by 2.37% at $2,334 per metric tonne, alongside gains of approximately 1.4% for similarly-dated corn and wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade.

In parallel, June Brent futures on the ICE were advancing 2.03% to $68.95 a barrel.

Over the weekend, and ahead of vice premier Liu He's trip to Washington on Monday for another round of trade negotiations, Beijing said it would extend a freeze on retaliatory tariffs on US car exports and add the opioid fentanyl to a list of controlled substances.

To take note of, according to a Reuters survey, in comparison to the previous month, supplies from the cartel shrank by 280,000 barrels a day in March to reach 30.40m barrels per day.

A sharp 220,000 b/d reduction in Saudi production was a key factor, alongside a 150,000 b/d fall in Venezuela's output, with exports from the South American country running at approximately 800,000 b/d.

May natural gas on NYMEX was also higher, advancing 2.1% to $2.72/MMBtu, with May heating oil up by 1.03% to $1.9918 per gallon.

Also buoying crude oil futures was another set of bullish weekly oil rig data Stateside published last Friday.

According to consultancy Baker Hughes, the number of onshore US oil rigs fell by eight during the week ending on 29 March to reach 816.

From a bird's eye view, the Bloomberg commodity index was climbing 0.73% to 81.68 - near its best level in two months - and the US dollar spot index was almost flat at 97.2800.

June gold on COMEX meanwhile was 0.37% lower to $1,293.70/oz..