Commodities: Metals mixed after better-than-expected US CPI

Metals prices swayed between ups and downs on Thursday as the dollar strengthened after a better-than-expected US inflation report.

The US consumer price index came in flat in September from a year ago, better than the 0.1% dip forecast and following a 0.2% increase in August.

“Overall, there is nothing in this report that would persuade Fed officials to hike interest rates before the end of this year,” said Steve Murphy, US economist at Capital Economics.

“But it will be much harder to leave rates at near-zero next year when possibly both headline and core CPI inflation will be above 2%.”

On the Comex gold continued to rise albeit at a slower pace (+0.12%), while silver snapped its earlier rally (-0.29%) and spot platinum gained (+11%).

Michael Van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets said, the recent rally in gold comes from expectations of a US rate hike delay on the back of weak data and increased risk aversion from a disappointing earnings season.

“Having broken above Feb falling highs, the yellow metal’s next stop could be June highs $1205,” he said.

Copper prices were lower on the Comex (-0.33%) but up on the LME’s three-month futures contract (+0.49%).

Other base metals contracts on the LME were mixed: primary aluminium (-0.1%), zinc (+0.0.9%), tin (+1.9%), nickel (+2%) and lead (+2%).

Oil prices continued to struggle, with West Texas Intermediate crude futures down 1.7% to $45.82 per barrel and Brent crude down 0.94% to $48.69 per barrel at 1535 BST.

Data from the American Petroleum Institute showing US crude stocks rose by 9.4m barrels in the week to 9 October added to concerns about oversupply in the market.

Headline agricultural commodities futures were mostly lower with CBOT corn (-0.33%), wheat (+0.79%), ICE cocoa (-0.71%) and ICE cotton (-0.49%) and CME live cattle (-0.29%) all slipping.