Commodities: Energy, copper futures pace gains

Commodities were higher nearly across-the-board as the greenback fell back after comments from US trade adviser Peter Navarro's remarks that the European single currency was "grossly undervalued", specifically taking aim at Germany's trade surplus.

That helped boost all commodity prices, although other factors may also have played a hand in advances for oil and copper futures, specifically.

In the energy patch, crude oil and product futures were up as an OPEC source told Reuters the cartel had achieved a high degree of compliance thus far with with their promised supply cuts, which a survey by the newswire pegged at roughly 82.0%.

West Texas Intermediate gained 1.39% to $53.36 a barrel on the NYMEX, while RBOB gasoline tacked on 2.13% to $1.5376 a gallon.

Natural gas futures on the other hand were left out of Tuesday's advance, with the March 2017 NYMEX contract down by 2.88% at $3.14/MMBtu.

As of 1800 GMT, the US dollar spot index faded 0.73% to 99.697, sending the Bloomberg commodity index up by 0.86% to 87.7742.

The hasty and poorly implemented immigration curbs from the new US administration were still echoing in markets, although Navarro's comments shifted the spotlight back towards trade policies to a degree.

Navarro's words led an analyst at one top-tier bank to caution that further politically-motivated high-pitched remarks were likely, so a significant risk premium should be priced into the US dollar.

Against that backdrop, futures prices for the yellow metal clambered back by 1.35% to $1,212.20/oz. on COMEX.

Copper futures also got a leg up, rising 2.66% to $2.7255 a pound, aided by low trading volumes around the Chinese Lunar New Year and speculation of an impending strike at Antofagasta's Escondida mine in Chile, according to one trader.

Out on the Chicago Board of Trade, March corn futures rose 0.63% to $3.5925 a bushel and those for wheat by 0.36% to $4.1550 a bushel.