Commodities: Energy futures drag after DoE reports build in product stockpiles

Commodities were under pressure on Wednesday following the release of a 'bearish' reading on weekly US crude oil stockpiles, as traders kept a close eye on the news-flow around the ongoing US-China trade talks.

According to the US Department of Energy, commercial crude oil inventories in the States over the week ending on 1 March rose by 7.1m barrels to hit 425.9m barrels.

But that was only due to a sharp increase in net imports, while sharp drops in product inventories pointed to resilient demand, analysts said.

Meanwhile, speaking from the sidelines of the 13th National Peoples's Congress, one of China's former finance ministers, Lou Jiwei, said any concessions from Beijing were unlikely to be big and reportedly labeled US demands "unreasonable and nitpicky".

Against that backdrop, as of 2100 GMT, the spot US dollar index was little changed, edging lower by 0.01% to 96.8560, despite which the Bloomberg commodity index was down by 0.56% at 80.74.

In the energy patch, West Texas Intermediate futures for April delivery were down by 0.64% to $56.20 a barrel, although May dated Brent had managed to reverse earlier losses and was up by 0.06% to $65.90 a barrel on the ICE.

April RBOB gasoline futures were also higher, rising by 0.96% to $1.7843 a gallon, but natural gas was off by 1.28% to $2.85/MMBtu.

Trading in LME base metals futures on the other hand was described by some traders as "fairly quiet", with trading volumes low amid a dearth of fresh catalysts for prices.

Three-month LME copper finished the session at $6,468 per metric tonne, which was down from $6,476 at the open.

There was choppy price action in soft commodities however, with May-dated wheat falling by 2.76% to $4.5 a bushel but similarly-dated cocoa jumping 4.08% to $2,245 per metric tonne.