Commodities: Crude southbound as US rig count, dollar encourage selling

Crude futures were southbound as rising rig counts in the US and some dollar strength encouraged a round of selling.

At 15:03 BST, Nymex-quoted West Texas Intermediate was down 1.25% to $49.72 a barrel, while Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent was down 1% to $51.43 a barrel.

Oil services provider Baker Hughes issued a report Friday that revealed US drillers had added four rigs in the week ending 14 October, yet another week without cuts.

"This commodity remains dogged by the persistent oversupply concerns," said FXTM Research Analyst Lukman Otunuga in a statement, summing up the situation.

"Fears over slowing global growth have sparked talks of a potential decline in demand," he added, addeing that although there was optimism of a freeze deal in November, both OPEC and Russia continued to pump at record output.

"From a technical standpoint, WTI bears could make an appearance if sellers can conquer the $49.50 support," Otunuga said.

Morgan Stanley added that crude would likely trade in a higher range until 30 November, when OPEC met in Vienna.

"We don't find many investors who are willing to place short bets ahead of the meeting [...] However, history and fundamentals suggest we are unlikely to reach cycle-highs from 2015."

Net length in West Texas Intermediate futures rose to its highest since July 2014 over the week ending on 11 October, the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission revealed.

Meantime, at about 15:03 BST, the dollar-spot index was down 0.07% to $97.947, while the greenback gained 0.28% against sterling to be at £0.8228.

Among the Comex-priced metals, gold was up 0.17% to $1257.6 an ounce, with silver up 0.11% to $17.46 an ounce and copper flat at $211.05 a pound.

London Metals Exchange's three-month metals prices were mostly lower.

Copper fell 0.79% to $4,675 a MT, while aluminium shed 1% to $1,675 a MT and tin shed 0.18% to $19,450 a MT. Zinc, however, was up 0.8% to $2,258 a MT.

Chicago Board of Trade-priced corn was down 0.71% to fetch $3.5175 a bushel, while wheat ebbed 0.3% to be at $4.1975 a bushel.

Intercontinental Exchange-quoted cocoa was lower 1.25% to $2,684 a MT, while cotton No.2 puffed up 0.18% to $7.070 a pound. Live cattle was herded 0.92% higher to $9.835 a pound.