Commodities: Energy slips on DoE data, India stops buying Iranian oil

Commodities were trading lower for the most part on Wednesday, despite the weak tone to the US dollar in the wake of the Federal Reserve's policy announcement.

The weakest segment of the market was clearly oil, with futures on West Texas Intermediate for prompt month delivery slipping by 0.91% to $71.62 per barrel on the NYMEX.

Natural gas futures were also down, retreating 1.98% to $3.02/MMBtu.

Weighing on WTI, earlier the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy's statistical arm, reported a larger than expected 1.9m barrel draw in the nation's commercial oil stockpiles (consensus: -1.3m barrels) as a result of declining refinery rates and increased domestic output.

To take note of in terms of the backdrop, reports on Wednesday were indicating that India was not planning any purchases of Iranian oil in November, joining the likes of Japan and South Korea.

Among base metals, three-month LME copper finished the day at $6,282 per metric tonne, after starting at $6,277.

Precious metals gold and silver on the other hand were falling, with the December 2018 contract down by 0.36% to $1,200.80/oz. on COMEX.

Likewise, most agriculture contracts were down too, with cocoa faring worst, retreating 2.0% to $2,151.0 per metric tonne on the ICE.