Commodities: DoE forecasts record US oil output in 2018

Commodities came under moderate selling pressure on Tuesday, even as most analysts appeared to be sanguine that the recent stockmarket rout would globally eventually wind down.

Thus, as of 905 GMT, the Bloomberg commodity index was slipping 0.41% to trade at 88.15, alongside a dip of 0.02% to 89.54 in the US dollar spot index.

However, the US dollar had traded slightly higher throughout most of the session.

Energy was the weakest segment, although West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were recouping early losses of 1.6% to trade down by 0.92% to $63.56 a barrel on NYMEX alongside an apparent stabilisation in stocks on Wall Street.

March 2018 RBOB gasoline futures on the other hand were down by 2.08% to $1.8081 a barrel.

To take note of, in its Annual Energy Outlook released earlier on Tuesday, the US Department of Energy projected that in 2018 US crude oil output would climb past the 9.6m barrel per day record set in 1970, plateauing at between 11.5m b/d and 11.9 b/d.

In parallel, gold futures dipped as traders in stocks recovered some of their nerve, sending April 2018 COMEX gold 0.41% lower to $1,331.0/oz..

Meanwhile, trading in industrial metals on the LME was nevertheless described by traders as "choppy", with those at Sucden blaming that on the early bid in the dollar.

Three-month LME copper futures ended the day at $7,128 a tonne, up from $7,111 at the opening bell in London.

Soft commodities were mixed, although CBoT corn and wheat futures were well bid, gaining 1.32% and 1.53%, respectively, to trade at $3.6350 and $4.47 a bushel, respectively.