Commodities: Advances in crude oil, copper peter out

Gains in crude oil and copper futures early in the European session faded by the time of the closing bell on Wall Street amid very cautious remarks from policy-makers in the euro area and Japan.

On Wednesday, European Central Bank chief economist Peter Praet urged governments to coordinate their strategies with a view to clinching a lasting recovery for the single currency bloc´s economy.

Speaking at the Institute of International Finance meeting in Madrid, on Wednesday, he said “The time for reforms is short, the window is narrow. We have to regain, explain -- and that’s the main challenge for policy makers -- that coordination is key for future growth and prosperity.”

The thrust of his remarks were to a certain extent similar to warning issued by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday at a summit of G7 central bankers and finance ministers.

In the proposals submitted to his guests, Abe reportedly warned of the risk of a repeat of the last financial crisis if the proper economic policies were not adopted.

Helping to lighten the mood a tad, at least for Thursday, local reports from China indicated the PBoC´s bias was for slightly loose monetary policy settings.

As of 21:00 BST front month Brent crude futures were off by 0.38% to $49.37 per barrel on the NYMEX, alongside a hefty drop in July 2016 NYMEX RBOB gasoline futures of 1.25% to $1.6210 per gallon.

At the start of European trading on Thursday Brent breached the $50 per barrel, prompting Capital Economics global chief economist Julian Jessop to tell clients that in net terms higher quotes would be a 'positive' for the world economy, albeit not for consumer countries such as Japan or in the Eurozone.

Jessop also flagged the potential for a correction in the oil price to unfold in the backhalf of 2016.

By the close of tradng on COMEX, similarly-dated copper futures were exactly flat at $2.102 a pound.

Soft commodities, on the other hand, retained a solid bid.

Wheat futures on CBoT were up by 3.27% to $4.8125 per bushel.

Cocoa futures were an exception, slipping 0.27% to $2,916 per metric tonne on the ICE.