Commodities: Oil fluctuates within $2 range, metals hit new low

Metal futures hit fresh lows on Tuesday, while oil benchmarks stayed within range of recent levels hounded by oversupply concerns.

At 1655 GMT, the Brent front-month futures contract was up a mere 0.02% or a cent to $43.58 per barrel, having risen as high as $44.55 in early trading before shedding the gains. Meanwhile, WTI was 1.06% or 43 cents lower at $40.24 per barrel, with both major contracts fluctuating within the recent $2 range.

Elsewhere, base metals hit fresh lows in late afternoon European trading, with copper sliding for the third session this week. The three-month copper delivery futures contract, already at a six-year low, fell another 1.1% to $4,634.00 per metric tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Additionally, LME's primary aluminium (broadly flat), nickel (down 1.3%), tin (down 0.7%), zinc (down 2.9%) and lead (down 1.2%) futures showed little signs of a recovery.

Concurrently, precious metals fell into negative territory, ahead of the publication of minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s last meeting with market sentiment in favour of an interest rate hike in December.

COMEX gold futures contract fell 0.10% or $1.10 to $1,067.50 an ounce, while spot gold was 0.23% or $2.50 lower at $1,067.80 an ounce. Away from gold, COMEX silver was down 0.99% or 14 cents to $14.03 an ounce, while spot platinum fell 0.84% or $7.19 to $846.91 an ounce.

Analysts at Macquarie said, “We estimate the metals that will be most heavily bought in the January rebalancing will be nickel and copper, the most heavily sold would be gold. Though on present prices, the shifts are quite small."

Liz Grant, senior account executive at Sucden Financial, said, “LME metals were trading “mixed” and in light volume. It appeared Wednesday that markets were generally treading water ahead of the release of the Fed FOMC minutes.”

Finally, headline agricultural commodity futures were on a mixed patch in early trading stateside. CBOT corn (down 0.41%), wheat (down 0.67%) and ICE cocoa (down 0.74%) contracts registered declines, while cotton (up 0.32%) and CME live cattle (up 2.30%) futures saw an uptick.