Commodities: Gold tumbles again in Europe, oil stabilises

Gold and platinum slipped again in European trading on Wednesday, while oil appeared to be stabilising with Brent well shy of the $60 equilibrium level most global producers are currently pining for.

At 16:12 BST, COMEX gold recorded another low at $1,091.40 down $12.10 or 1.10% tumbling back down to near five-year lows, while spot gold was trading at $1,095.89 down $5.36 or 0.49%.

Platinum fell yet again in the face of low demand and plenty of stockpiles shedding 75 cents or 0.08% to $977.55, ensuring the previous session was little more than a temporary reprieve. However, silver marginally managed to stay in positive territory up 0.03% or 1 cent to $14.79 an ounce.

Additionally, the industrial metals market continued to send mixed signals with equal flashes of red and green. Past the midway point in trading on the London Metal Exchange, primary aluminium (up 0.5%) and tin (up 1.0%), while zinc, nickel and lead were broadly flat.

Meanwhile, oil benchmarks exuded relative calm as analysts at Barclays opined that futures contracts for 2016, currently at the their lowest since the contracts began, “appear undervalued”. However, earlier this month the International Energy Agency said with oversupply and lack of demand being where they were, “something has got to give.”

At the present moment in time, both Brent and WTI appear to be going nowhere. The Brent front month futures contract for September delivery was down 0.77% or 44 cents at $56.60 per barrel, while the WTI was down 1.20% or 61 cents at $50.25.

Finally, on the agricultural commodities market CBOT corn (down 0.66%) and wheat (0.52%) were trading lower while ICE cotton (up 0.51%) or CME live cattle (up 0.39%) were up. ICE cocoa contract provided a footnote to the market down 1.50% or $50 at $3,286 per metric tonne.

City analysts predicted a further retreat for the cocoa contract, which was deemed to have outperformed for much of June, based on oversupply issues pertaining to Brazil’s coffee harvest.