Commodities: Crude lumbers ahead on renewed hopes of OPEC production deal

Crude oil futures nipped higher on Thursday afternoon as hopes took hold in the market that OPEC will strike a production deal at its November meeting in Vienna.

At about 15:40 GMT, Nymex-priced West Texas Intermediate crude was up 1.14% to $46.09 a barrel, while Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent was up 1.18% to $47.18 a barrel.

Oil prices have been under pressure thanks to a global supply glut, and buffeted about a fair bit on hopes of an output cap being achieved at OPEC's November meeting.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said he was hopeful the cartel of oil exporting countries would formalise a preliminary crude output deal reached in Algeria in September.

"I'm still optimistic that the consensus reached in Algeria for capping production will translate, God willing, into caps on states' levels and fair and balanced cuts among countries," he told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV.

FXTM Research analyst Lukman Otunuga sounded a note of caution when he said WTI had been left vulnerable to losses on Wednesday after official inventory reports showed a build in US stores.

"It seems that despite all the talks of OPEC and Non-OPEC members working together to fight the oversupply woes, optimism has deteriorated over any meaningful freeze deal in November’s formal meeting," he added.

"With Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran still at odds over the production curbs, this could be another meal ticket for bears to drag WTI lower. Bears simply need to conquer the $45 support to encourage a further decline towards $43 and potentially lower."

Meantime, on Comex, gold was up 0.23% to $1226.7 an ounce, while silver firmed 0.08% to $16.94 an ounce and copper rose 1.03% to 249.3 cents a pound.

"Gold ticked slightly higher today and this has nothing to do with an improved sentiment towards the metal but profit taking above the stubborn $1210 support," Otunuga said.

"This metal remains heavily pressured by the rising US rate hike expectations while Dollar strength has capped most upside gains," he opined.

Three-month prices for industrial metals on London Metals Exchange were heavily lower. Copper fell 1.67% to $5433 a MT, aluminum lost 2.19% to $1697 a MT, zinc slipped 3.41% to $2524 a MT and tin dropped 1.97% to $19,900 a MT.

Among agricultural futures, Chicago Board of Trade-priced corn was down 0.14% to 346 cents a bushel and wheat was flat at 397 cents a bushel.

ICE-listed cocoa slumped 1.62% to $2372 a MT and cotton No.2 rose 0.13% to 761.78 cents a pound. Live cattle was up 0.23% to 108.75 cents a pound.