Commodities: Oil moves back towards $50 a barrel after US inventory data

Crude oil futures pushed closer towards the pyschological $50 a barrel mark, riding higher on the coat-tails of the latest US Department of Energy data which revealed a 4.2m barrel reduction in the country´s commercial oil stockpiles during the latest week.

As of 19:46 BST front month Brent crude futures were up by 2.41% to reach $49.81 per barrel on the ICE alongside a rise of 1.92% to $49.57 for West Texas Intermediate.

June 2016 heating oil futures on NYMEX were also staging an advance, rising by 1.36% to $1.5089 per gallon but RBOB gasoline futures could be seen retreating 0.96% to $1.6386 per gallon.

Weakness in the greenback failed to light a fire under precious metals´ prices. Gold futures for delivery in August slipped 0.41% to trade at $1,224.20/oz. and spot platinum relinquished 0.49% to $994.25/oz..

Futures for silver on the other hand tacked on 0.47% to finish at $16.33/oz..

July 2016 copper futures on COMEX were up by 1.79% $2.1035 a pound, even as Iron Ore 62% Fe futures were being quoted off by 0.5 to $45.50 a tonne on the CME. Over the previous two sessions they had already surrendered about 10%.

Analysts at Macquarie sounded a somewhat cheery note on the prospects for metals demand, telling clients: "global industrial production avoided a recession in 1Q, but growth remains very slow and dependent on China, based on national output data of 69 leading industrial countries, which account for about 93% of global IP.

"Many headwinds remain but solid initial April data plus a falling headwind from the weak oil sector suggesting a more promising outlook. This will underpin metals demand."

Bloomberg´s commodity index finished the day up by 1.21% to 85.19 as the US dollar spot index took a breather following several days of gains, drifting lower by 0.17% to 95.41.

By the close of trading in London, cocoa furures on Euronext LIFFE were to be seen 0.9% down at £2,174 per tonne, in contrast to gains of 2.4% to $479.70 per metric tonne for white sugar futures

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures for July 2016 jumped 1.86% to $4.05 per bushel and those for wheat 0.43% to $4.66 per bushel.