Commodities: Brent and copper dip amid thin trading volumes, growth concerns

The commodities space saw lacklustre trading on Thursday despite optimism around the US-China trade talks, what with many traders in the City opting to mimic their counterparts in the States, who were away from their desks on account of the 4 July holiday.

"With US traders mostly off for Independence Day holiday trading was somewhat thin across the board," said traders at Sucden Financial.

As of 1754 BST, front month Brent crude oil futures were down by 0.47% to $63.52 a barrel on the ICE.

In the background, the US dollar spot index was essentially unchanged, drifting lower by 0.02% to 96.7460.

Meanwhile, on the LME, most of the main base metals contracts finished higher, albeit with three-month copper slipping from $5,938 per metric tonne at the open to $5,920 at the close.

On Wednesday evening, US National Economic Council director, Larry Kudlow said trade officials from both countries were already talking and would continue to hold telephone calls over the coming week and schedule face-to-face meetings, Bloomberg reported.

That was followed on Thursday by remarks from Chinese Commerce ministry spokesman, Gao Feng, who said that all of America's punitive tariffs on the country's exports would have to be removed in order for there to be a trade deal, Caixin reported.