Commodities: Oil futures end lower as US rig count climbs

Commodity prices finished the session higher despite downwards pressure in the form of a stronger US dollar and data showing US frackers were busy bringing oil rigs back into operation.

The Bloomberg commodity index ended the day up by 0.07% to 86.34 even as the US dollar spot index rose 0.52% to 98.02.

Front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures slipped 0.18% to $50.35 per barrel on the NYMEX, despite Baker Hughes´s weekly oil rig count revealing that the number of onshore US oil rigs increased by 15 to 539.

Heating oil futures did worst in the energy patch, faling 0.78% to $1.5673 per gallon.

Gold futures on COMEX also retreated, but only slightly, losing 0.17% to $1,255.50/oz..

Copper futures also retreated 0.54% to $2.1105 a pound.

Agricultural futures were generally higher, with corn futures on CBoT rising 1.36% to $3.5425 a bushel.