Commodities: Chinese economic data boosts metals

A downdraft in the energy space weighed on the commodities complex at the start of the week after the world's largest oil exporter announced it would lower the price to its Asian markets for its Arab Light crude by the most in 10 months.

On Sunday, Saudi Aramco, the Middle Eastern Kingdom´s state-owned oil company cut its price for shipments of Arab Light crude oil by $1.30 a barrel to $1.10 below the regional Asian benchmark.

Bloomberg´s comodity index was trading down by 1.45% to 83.0617 as of 18:25 BST while the spot US dollar index was edging higher by just 0.17% to 95.692.

In parallel, heating oil futures on NYMEX for delivery in September 2016 were off by 3.98% to $1.255 per gallon and those for similarly-dated gasoline by 1.82% to $1.2954 per gallon.

Among industrial metals it was a wholly different story, as traders reacted to generally better than expected economic data out of China that some economists said held out the prospect that the impact of recent stimulus might be sustained over the short-term.

Copper futures on COMEX were the odd man out, falling by 0.90% to $2.2015 per pound.

However, three-month zinc futures were gaining 2.2% to $2,267.00 per metric tonne on the LME as of 15:35 BST, alongside a rise of 1.9% to $10,762.50 per metric tonne for zinc.

Overnight, rebar futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange were 2% higher to 2,493 yuan a tonne. Reports indicated China was planning to merge to create two state-owned steel giants, one in the south and another in the north, in a bid to cut oversupply in the sector.

Precious metals were also broadly higher, with silver futures trading up by 1.0% to $20.55/oz. on COMEX and spot platinum tacking on 0.74% to $1,157.05/oz..

Over in soft commodities, the tone to trading was similarly strong.

ICE cocoa futures for delivery in September 2016 gained 2.82% to $2,915 per metric tonne while live cattle CME futures advanced 2.51% to $1.1453 per pound.

Corn futures were weak nonetheless, with the December 2016 contract erasing 1.75% to $3.3675 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.