Commodities: Energy, agriculture futures rise

Energy futures led a small bounce in commodities despite simmering doubts regarding the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries' ability to reign in production and bulging global oil stockpiles worldwide in 2017.

Front month West Texas Intermediate rose 1.30% to $49.82 per barrel on NYMEX while Brent gained 1.32% to $50.64 on the ICE.

RBOB gasoline was the exception to the general uptrend in the energy space, slipping 0.02% to $1.4828 a gallon.

Overall, Bloomberg´s commodity index advanced 0.73% to 86.16 even as the US dollar spot index rose 0.28% to 98.91.

Precious metals attracted a small bid despite the uptick in the US dollar, with gold futures for December 2016 delivery edging up 0.28% to $1,270.20/oz.

In parallel, December futures on COMEX advanced 0.79% to $2.1625 a pound.

Over in the soft commodities corner, corn futures expiring in the same month added 0.85% to $3.57 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, with those for wheat rising by an identical percentage point increase to $4.1475 a bushel.

Weakness was apparent however in ICE-traded cocoa, which gave back 1.05% to end the day at $2,632.00 per metric tonne.

On Euronext LIFFE, robsuta coffee futures rose 0.8% to $2,171.00 a metric tonne, while white sugar was up by 0.2% to $596.80 a tonne.