Commodities: Gains for energy and metals offsets weakness in grains and cocoa

Strength in energy and metals offset widespread weakness in the soft commodities space on Tuesday despite soft readings on various key surveys linked to the Chinese economy.

As of 1836 BST, Brent crude futures were up by 1.12% to $72.85 a barrel on the ICE, alongside a gain of 2.29% to $2.1305 a gallon for May gasoline on NYMEX.

In parallel, the Bloomberg commodity index was well off its intra-session highs, edging up by 0.09% to 80.16, even as the US dollar spot index came off by 0.36% to 97.50, although the latter remained within a whisker of its 52-week highs.

Overnight, the closely-followed Caixin China factory sector Purchasing Managers' Index printed at 50.2 for April, which was down from a reading of 50.8 in March and noticeably weaker than the 50.9 that economists had anticipated.

Despite such weak readings out of China, metals prices were on the soft side, but not unduly so.

Indeed, three-month copper futures on the LME rose from $6,410 per metric tonne at the opening bell to finish at $6,415.

According to traders at Sucden Financial, the lack of a big price reaction was due to the fact that the Shanghai Futures Exchange was closed for holidays.

Three-month aluminium on the LME on the other hand was among the contracts that did slip, as more stock was delivered at LME warehouses.

Spot platinum also traded lower, slipping 0.57% to $890.65/oz..

Meanwhile, July wheat on the CBoT was down by 1.44% to $4.29 a bushel, three-month cocoa on ICE was retreating 1.01% to $2,359.0 a tonne and CME live cattle for June delivery was off by 0.50% to $1.1423 a pound.