Commodities: Chinese trade data knocks copper futures lower, but little else

Weaker than expected trade data out of the People's Republic of China left a dent in copper futures but not much else on Thursday, with a pull-back in the US dollar possibly helping to steady traders' nerves.

Furthermore, economists attributed the bulk of the weakness in the Chinese figures to tepid demand from overseas, whether it be from emerging markets or Europe and the US.

Similarly, the commodity trade data for September in Asia's second largest economy was in fact not that weak (outside of copper) and came after bumper increases in demand in August, Barclays Research's Kevin Norrish said.

China's commodity imports slowed down in September but year-to-date the rate of growth in those of oil, copper metal and iron ore were nevertheless considerably higher than at this same time one year ago, at 14%, 11% and 10%, respectively, Norrish pointed out.

Copper imports on the other hand did fall sharply, Norrish added, which might be a warning that the effects of government stimulus were starting to slow a little.

Chinese iron ore imports strengthened by 6% month-on-month in September to hit 92.99m tonnes.

That saw Shanghai-traded rebar futures gain 0.3% overnight, adding to a roughly 40% advance year-to-date amid closures of Chinese iron ore mines and policy stimulus.

COMEX-traded copper futures on the other hand were down 2.46% to $2.1230 a pound as of 1846 BST.

As of 1832 BST, the Bloomberg commodity index was up by 0.64% to 86.20, while the US dollar sport index was lower by 0.40% to 97.57.

Most soft commodities moved higher, with December 2016 corn and wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade doing best.

Corn was up by 2.97% to $3.47 a bushel, alongside a gain of 4.03% to $4.1275 a bushel for wheat.

Among the exceptions, on Euronext LIFFE robusta coffee futures had dipped 0.4% to $2,029.00 a tonne by the close and white sugar futures drifted lower by 0.2% to $592.70 per tonne.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures edged higher by 0.32% to $50.34 a barrel on NYMEX after the latest weekly US Department of Energy inventory figures revealed a large drop in oil stockpiles but even bigger contractions in most product inventories.