Commodities: Crude casts off early gains to be firmly down this afternoon

Crude oil cast away its morning gains to be firmly south as bears again made their presence known in a market deeply uneasy about its chronic global supply overhang.

At 15:32 BST, Nymex-priced West Texas Intermediate crude was down 0.42% to $42.83 a barrel. Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent fell 0.64% to $45.25 a barrel.

"Investors lost their bottle," said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex. He was correct; Brent had traded in gains of almost 1.5% for its mid-afternoon weakness.

Crude oil is caught in a perfect storm -- Opec production curbs have given rise to a surge in US shale production, with the market already nervy about oversupply also doubting the sufficiency of the cartel's pledges going forward.

FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga cautioned that investor attraction to oil was undermined by the global glut.

"As the oversupply woes remain a dominant theme in the oil markets, any appreciation in prices may be treated as a technical bounce for sellers to start renewed rounds of selling," he said.

"From a technical standpoint, a breakdown below $43 should open a path towards $42 and $40 respectively," said Otunuga.

Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam opined earlier -- before oil fell -- that he saw little about this morning's rise to convince him it was anything other than a dead cat bounce.

Meantime, on Comex, gold was down 0.84% to $1245.90 an ounce. Silver lost 0.58% to $16.61 an ounce. Copper was improved 0.11% to 263.75 cents a pound.

"Gold prices slumped heavily in early European trading, with a large number of contracts dumped onto the market shortly after the German IFO data," said Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group.

"Gold has been steadily losing its appeal as Europe and the US emerge unscathed from political upset," he added.

Not so the UK, which only today saw PM Theresa May's Tories fashion a minority government with the DUP of Northern Ireland.

On London Metals Exchange, three-month industrial metals were mixed. Copper was up 1.02%, with zinc adding 0.15%. Aluminum fell 0.27% and tin lost 0.13%.