Commodities: Oil, precious metals drop

Saudi Arabia dashed hopes that producer countries would be able to reach an agreement to freeze output during their talks in Algiers.

In remarks to journalists, the country's energy minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters their meetings were only "consultative".

As a result, front month Brent crude futures were down by 2.45% to $46.21 per barrel on the ICE as of 1845 BST, alongside a 2.49% drop to $44.81 in West Texas Intermediate.

October 2016 heating oil futures on NYMEX were also lower, slipping 2.53% to $1.4124 per gallon, while RBOB gasoline retreated 1.10% to $1.3870 a gallon.

Precious metals were also left nursing heavy losses in the wake of Monday night's televised debate between the two main US presidential rivals.

According to a CNN poll, 62% of the voters who watched the televised debate between the two US presidential rivals overnight said Clinton had won the debate, versus 27% who believed Trump had stolen the show.

Gold futures for delivery in December lost 1.03% to $1,330.30/oz.. and silver 2.20% to $19.17/oz..

In parallel, three-month LME traded copper futures skidded 1.0% to end the day at $4,794.00 per metric tonne.

However, other bulk metals were on the up, with similarly-dated zinc futures gaining 2.6% to $2,326.00 per tonne while those for nickel rose 0.8% to $10,625.00.

Of interest, analysts at Credit Suisse told clients that "growing concerns around the potential return of Glencore's 500 kt of suspended production and the negative impact on prices" was overdone.

The Swiss broker continued to see upside risks to zinc prices as the market deficit became increasingly visible.

Bloomberg's commodity index was 0.82% lower at 84.16 as the US dollar index edged higher by 0.11% to 95.40.