Commodities: Asset class pushes higher on sustained demand from investors

Commodities markets were awash in green at the end of the week despite another small gain for the US dollar, as data showed that investors were continuing to pile into the asset class.

Gold was among the strongest performers, with the June 2016 COMEX contract up by 1.71% to $1,294.00/oz. by the closing bell.

Commodity funds had another week of inflows, the 17th so far this year, pushing year-to-date inflows to almost $6bn, analysts at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said citing figures from EPFR Global.

In parallel, the exodus from equity funds extended into a 13th consecutive week, bringing the grand tally for YTD outflows to $27bn, with fixed income and credit funds also among the main beneficiaries after the European Central Bank last ramped-up its asset purchase programme, the broker said.

Energy futures did well on Friday too. Front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were up by 0.77% to $44.66 per barrel by the closing bell.

Natural gas futures on the New York mercantile exchange gained 1.20% to $2.10/MMbtu.

Copper was flat on COMEX, with July 2016 futures ending the day flat at $215.40/lb., with traders likely waiting on key macro releases scheduled for release over the coming weekend from China, with other first-tier data on Asia's largest economy due out over subsequent days.

Acting as a backdrop, over the weekend wildfires in Canada's oil-sands regions in Alberta continued to extend, affecting over 1m barrels a day of oil output, according to estimates from IHS Energy.

Soft commodities were also wanted, aside from cocoa.

Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 1.0% to $3.7570/bushel and live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange by another 0.92% to $1.2073 per pound.

Cocoa futures on the ICE lost 2.66% to trade at $3,074 per metric tonne.

The Bloomberg commodity index advanced 0.83% to 168.22, alongside a tick higher in the US dollar spot index of 0.12% to 93.888.