Commodities: Oil futures climb despite gains in US dollar

Energy futures continued to rise, with gains in crude oil pacing the advance.

As of 1918 BST the Bloomberg commodity index was drifting lower by 0.18% to 85.56, while the US dollar spot index was up by 0.52% to 96.63.

Front month West Texas Intermediate were nevertheless higher by 1.28% to $50.47 a barrel on NYMEX while ICE-traded Brent futures rose 1.31% to $52.54.

In parallel, heating oil futures on NYMEX were up by 0.76% to $1.5944 a gallon.

Meanwhile, and in the metals space, December 2016 gold futures retreated 1.25% to close at $1,252.80/oz. and silver by a hefty 2.29% to $17.29/oz..

Acting as a backdrop, it should be noted how developed world sovereign bonds dropped to their lowest levels since July as traders continued to react to recent remarks from officials at the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan pointing to a shift away from negative interest rates.

December 2016 copper futures on COMEX were also lower, slipping 0.44% to $2.1550 a pound.

In parallel, Fed funds futures continued to creep higher and at last count were assigning a 63.9% probability that the US central bank would hike rates by 25 basis points at its 14 December meeting.

Agricultural commodities were also on their backfoot, with December 2016 corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade erasing 2.01% to trade at $3.4075 per bushel and wheat off by 2.22% to $3.96 a bushel.