Commodities: Oil price rally set to fade, Maquarie says

Energy futures managed a higher close despite data showing that US oil firms brought another 10 rigs into operation in the latest week.

The number of US oil rigs in operation increased by 10 to 491, according to the latest tally from Baker Hughes.

Nevertheless, front month West Texas Intermediate crude futures finished 19 cents higher at $48.52 on NYMEX.

Oil futures might still be headed higher, rallying towards the low- to mid-$50 per barrel range before fading over the next few weeks, analysts at Maquarie said in a research report dated 19 August.

The rally was being driven by technical and capital flow factors, along with some fundamentals, they explained.

Among the factors to watch for cited were increasing oil output from Iraq and the risk that Libyan production almost tripled to 850,000 barrels per day by year-end 2016.

As regarded current technicals in the marketplace, the Australian broker continued to see potential for "substantial" short-covering.

"Short interest remains at high levels despite last week’s 48 K contract reduction," it said.

Gold futures for delivery in December 2016 surrendered $9.30 to see the day off at $1,346.20/oz. on COMEX.

Three-month copper futures on the LME ended the session down by 0.2% to $4,796.00 per metric tonne.

In the agricultural space, soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower by 0.2% at $3.414 per pound, while those for corn rose 0.7% to $3.3425 a bushel.