Commodities: Iranian oil minister warns of possible OPEC collapse

Metals and energy futures moved higher at the end of the week, boosted by a stronger-than-expected reading on the US jobs market, although remarks from Iranian officials that OPEC was in danger of collapsing may have tempered gains in the latter.

According to the US Department of Labour, non-farm payrolls jumped by 263,000 in April, soundly beating forecasts for a gain of 180,000.

But the same report revealed a drop in the labour force participation rate back down to 62.8%, the same level as one year ago, possibly dashing hopes in some corners of a sustained supply-side boost for the American economy.

Even so, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures gained, although by 2018 BST they had pared their advance and were up by just 0.31% at $62.0 a barrel on the NYMEX after news broke of the Iranian oil minister's warning.

According to Tehran's state-owned news agency, Shana, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told OPEC Secretary General, Mohammed Barkindo, that "Iran is a member of OPEC just for its interests and if certain OPEC members want to threaten and endanger Iran, Iran will not refrain from responding to them."

"I told Mr Barkindo that OPEC is being threatened due to unilateralism by certain members and this organization is likely to collapse," Zanganeh reportedly said

Late in the afternoon, consultancy Baker Hughes reported that the number of onshore US oil rigs operating rose by two over the latest week to reach 807.

The pull back in crude oil futures also came despite a report from Reuters that Russian state-run pipeline monopoly Transneft had asked the country's producers to slash their output by approximately 6.6m barrels, until 7 May, in response to the disruption to exports caused by contaminated oil cargoes.

Precious metals was the strongest segment of the market, with July silver on COMEX snapping 2.28% higher to $14.95/oz, alongside a gain of 0.67% to $1,280.50/oz. for June gold.

Copper was also doing well, with the July contract on COMEX adding 1.37% to $2.8175 a pound.

Platinum was also wanted, with the spot price climbing 2.38% to $871.54/oz..

Soft commodities meanwhile were doing their name justice.

July wheat on CBoT was down 1.35% to $4.38 a bushel, alongside a dip of 0.22% to $1.1343/lb. for CME live cattle futures.