Commodities: Copper could hit $3.0 per pound mark, Barclays says

Energy and metals futures declined on Thursday, acting as a drag on the entire complex.

West Texas Intermediate slipped 0.56% to $53.58 a barrel on NYMEX while RBOB gasoline futures fell 2.83% to $1.5344 a gallon.

Natural gas futures were one of the few headed higher, tacking on 0.09% to trade at $3.17/MMBtu.

Overall, as of 2010 GMT Bloomberg's commodity index was lower by 0.16% at 88.39, while the US dollar was edging higher by 0.16% to 99.80.

In parallel, copper futures on COMEX were down 1.05% to $2.6830 a pound, but gold futures over on COMEX found a bid, which pushed them higher by 0.75% to $1,217.40/oz..

Worth noting, in a research note published during the previous session analysts at Barclays said the vote by workers at the Escondida mine in Chile to strike, together with difficulties at Grasberg might see copper rise to the $3.0 mark.

However, the analysts believed that level would prove unsustainable, projecting prices would slip to an average of $2.50 a pound for 2017.

"Simultaneous failures at Escondida and Grasberg would result in a halt to production of 8% of the world’s primary copper supply and 10% of global mined supply. This would likely catalyze a strong bullish price reaction that would be sustained, as long as there are outages at both mines. Conversely, if a last-minute deal is reached at Escondida and shipments resume from Grasberg, prices could pull back by ~20 c/lb, a 7% decline," they said.

Agriculture futures were mixed, with CME live cattle futures up by the most and rising 1.56% to $1.1548 a pound.