Commodities: Gains for natural gas help offset losses in agricultural futures

Natural gas futures continued to move back towards their recent 52-week highs, alongside a small advance in crude oil futures.

As of 1956 GMT, natural gas futures on NYMEX were jumping by 8.10% to $4.62/MMBtu., alongside a 0.39% rise in front month Brent crude oil futures to $67.02 per barrel on the ICE.

To take note of, on Monday a Turco-Russian joint-venture laid the last segment of the new Turkstream natural gas pipeline running under the Black Sea.

In parallel, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Slovakia, International Energy Agency chief, Fatih Birol, reportedly described Saudi's current surplus oil-producing capacity as "very thin".

For some market observers, those comments were the main trigger behind Monday's price moves in oil.

Nevertheless, on Friday, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission had reported that net long positions in Brent futures had shrunk by 17% over the week ending on 13 November to reach 214,832 contracts, marking their lowest ebb in nearly a year and a half.

Shorts on West Texas Intermediate meanwhile jumped by 12%.

Commenting on the CFTC data, analysts at TD Securities told clients: "As for energy markets, prices continue their attempt to find a floor following several consecutive weeks of carnage. We expect that positive fundamentals will ultimately lift the complex in the coming months, but caution against choppy price action in the near-term following the recent momentum shock.

"Systematic trend followers are likely to hold onto their modest shorts for the time being, with the hurdle rate required for short covering hovering above $60/bbl [on WTI] for now."

Trading in base metals futures on the LME meanwhile was subdued, with prices finishing in a mixed fashion.

In the case of three-month copper, traders at Sucden Financial said the weaker US dollar had propped-up sentiment in the near-term even as they pointed to a 'double top' price pattern at $6,275.

Copper finished the session higher at $6,259 per metric tonne, having started the day off from $6,235.

Agricultrual futures were mostly lower, January soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade clocking in with the biggest losses at down by 2.07% at $8.7375 a bushel.

As an aside, on Monday, Bloomberg cited Long Yongtu, a former Chinese official that helped negotiate the Asian giant's entry into the World Trade Organisation, as saying in its original response Beijing should have avoided targetting soybeans, given that they were a highly politically-sensitive topic.