Commodities: Crude softens as market cautious on OPEC cap hopes; industrial metals surge

Crude oil futures are softening on Tuesday afternoon as a note of caution sounded through the market relating to hopes cartel OPEC will introduce a production cap at its 30 November meeting in Vienna. Industrial metals flew higher.

At about 16:45 GMT, Nymex-listed West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 1.37% to $47.58 a barrel, while Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent slipped 0.76% to $48.53 a a barrel.

The black liquid has been mired in a chronic crude glut, which has overall seen its price shredded thanks to an ongoing supply glut and a series of surprise rises in stores.

FXTM Research analyst Lukman Otunuga said hopes had intensified that OPEC would secure an effective freeze deal in Vienna.

He cautioned investors to "remain diligent as OPEC could be exploiting oil's sensitivity" to create speculative boosts in prices.

"The repeated comments from Iraq and Iran displaying their readiness towards fighting the oversupply woes have played a key part in oil's resurgence," he observed.

"Russia's willingness to join an OPEC-led production freeze continues to boost investor attraction towards the commodity," he added.

"OPEC may be playing a dangerous game if investors are left disappointed with another 'Doha failure' potentially deepening the oversupply woes in 2017."

In related news, a Nigerian delegate at an OPEC technical meeting in Vienna on Tuesday said, referring to a potential production cap, that it was "likely everybody will be on board by the end of the day."

Elsewhere, Comex-listed metals made headway. Gold was up gold up 0.12% to $1211.20 an ounce, with silver adding 0.75% to $16.75 an ounce and copper firming 0.85% to 254.9 cents a pound.

Three-month industrial metals' prices on the London Metals Exchange flew. Aluminum and zinc rose about 1.6%, but copper rose 2.51% to $5559 a MT, while tin soared 3.22% to $20,850 a MT.

These prices had a knock-on benefit for FTSE, with mining and oil stocks performing overall very well. Dollar-spot index down 0.04% to $101.010.

Meantime, among agricultural futures, Chicago Board of Trade-quoted corn fell 0.35% to 356.5 cents a bushel and wheat tapered 0.23% to 426 cents a bushel.

On ICE, cocoa was up 0.9% to $2453 a MT and cotton No.2 ebbed 0.77% to 71.73 cents a pound. Live cattle fell 0.23% to 109.33 cents a pound.