Commodities: Energy futures slip as OPEC+ fails to agree on date for next summit

Energy futures slipped on Monday following the release of unexpectedly weak readings on the Empire State manufacturing sector index and for the NAHB housing market index in the States, and as ministers from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries continued to try and agree on a date for their next meeting, possibly in early July.

Against that backdrop, front month Brent crude oil futures were retreating 1.35% to $61.17 a barrel on the ICE as of 2015 BST, alongside a 2.11% drop in RBOB gasoline on NYMEX for delivery in July to $1.6960 a gallon.

As an aside, the latest weekly US oil rig count data from consultancy Baker Hughes, which were published during the previous session, revealed a drop of one to 788.

The main base metals contracts on the LME meanwhile were mixed, although three-month copper futures slipped from $5,814 per metric tonne at the open to finish at $5,845.

Gold futures also dipped, with the August contract on COMEX down by 0.16% to $1,342.30, even as Iran warned Europe it had 10 days left to find a solution to the impact that US sanctions were having on its economy and salvage the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Soft commodities were mostly higher outside of cocoa with CME live cattle for August delivery doing best and gaining 1.29% to $1.0563 a pound. ICE-traded cocoa futures on the other hand were down by 0.68% to $2,479 per metric tonne.

In the background, the Bloomberg commodity index was off its intra-session highs of 78.22, drifting 0.01% lower to 77.82, as the US dollar spot index slipped by 0.05% to 97.5250, albeit after recovering from an earlier bout of weakness on the back of unexpectedly weak economic data in the US.