Commodities: Oil futures end lower on risk aversion

Front month West Texas crude futures were dragged lower at the end of last week by the bout of risk aversion which swept through international financial markets after China took measures to cool the country´s stockmarkets.

Beijing announced curbs on the financing of margin trading by the shadow banking system while at the same making it easier for investors to short-sell stocks.

The Shanghai Composite index was the best performer in the world over the last six months, sporting a 77% rise.

Oil futures ended the session lower by 82 cents to $55.74 per barrel on the NYMEX.

In parallel, gold futures for June delivery edged higher by $4.5 per ounce to $1,203.10/ounce on COMEX, tracking the small decline seen in the US dollar.

The US consumer price index declined by 0.1% year-on-year in March (consensus: 0.0%). However, at the 'core' level it came in a tad higher than expected at 1.8% (consensus: 1.7%).

On a more positive note, the preliminary reading onthe University of Michigan´s consumer confidence gauge for April revealed a small uptick to 95.9 from areading of 93 in the month before.

That was slightly ahead of the 94 point print for the month before.