Commodities: Oil futures bounce back despite record US oil output

Commodity prices were moving higher on Wednesday, helped by a 'bullish' set of weekly US oil inventory figures, even as America's trade czar, Robert Lighthizer, testified before Congress on the current state of US-China trade talks.

According to the US Department of Energy, commercial crude oil inventories in the States dropped by an unusually large 8.6m barrels to sit at 445.9m, together with declines in stockpiles of gasoline, distillate fuels and propane/propylene.

A 1.61m barrel a day reduction in the country's imports was the chief reason behind the move lower in oil stocks, although refinery inputs also declined a tad.

Yet domestic US oil output increased by another 100,000 b/d, setting a fresh record of 12.1m b/d.

As of 1956 GMT, front month Brent crude oil futures were bouncing back by 1.69% to $66.31 a barrel on the ICE, with RBOB gasoline on NYMEX putting on 3.0% to $1.6339 a gallon.

Alongside those moves, Bloomberg's commodity index was ahead by 0.49% at 81.61, even as the US dollar index edged higher by 0.17% to 96.1660.

Over in the soft commodities patch, moves were largely restrained, although ICE-traded cocoa was adding 1.63% to $2,313 per metric tonne.

In base metals meanwhile, three-month LME copper futures edged higher, rising from $6,487 per metric tonne at the start of trading to $6,506 a tonne by the close.

In the background, in testimony to the US House of Representative's Ways and Means committee, Lighthizer said it was "too soon" to call what the result of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing would be.

Nonetheless, he was at pains to emphasise that the US was seeking "structural changes" in the trade relationship with Beijing.