Commodities: Natural gas futures surge ahead of cold snap

Commodity prices advanced at the start of the week, with natural gas prices in the States pacing on the back of what analysts said was a lack of inventories ahead of the arrival of a 'cold snap'.

As of 1859 GMT, the Bloomberg commodity index was up by 0.44% to 84.26 as the US dollar spot index gave back 0.27% to stand at 96.2820.

In parallel, natural gas futures on NYMEX for delivery in December surging 7.83% to $3.54/MMBtu, alongside a bounce in similarly-dated West Texas Intermediate of 0.46% to $63.43 a barrel.

Acting as a backdrop, on Monday, Washington reimposed its sanctions on Iran, with Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, saying Iran must "act like a normal country, or see its economy crumble."

Indeed, the sanctions, which had been removed under the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, were reinstated and reinforced.

A total of 50 lenders and their subsidiaries were targeted, together with 200 persons and Iranian-flagged ships, as well as 65 aircraft belonging to its national airline.

Base metals futures on the LME all ended lower, with the three-month contract slipping from $6,295 per metric tonne at the open to $6,191 per tonne.

Agriculture futures were mixed, with December-dated corn on CBoT trading higher by 0.61% to $3.7350/bushel, while cocoa futures were up by 1.48% to $2,335 per metric tonne.