Commodities: Oil sees lacklustre trading as Saudis maintain output

Oil futures saw lacklustre trading on Monday, as Saudi Arabia indicated it would not lower its crude production levels while Fitch Ratings cut its oil price assumptions.

At 1346 GMT, the Brent front-month futures contract for December delivery was up 1.03% or 49 cents to $47.91 per barrel having barely recovered from the previous session’s decline, while the WTI was up 0.56% or 25 cents at $44.54 per barrel.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings cut its oil and gas price assumptions for corporate credit ratings assessments in the energy sector “reflecting the continued imbalance between oil supply and demand.”

In a statement, the agency said its new assumption, or price deck, is for Brent to average $55 a barrel in 2016 and $65 a barrel in 2017, with WTI averaging $50 a barrel in 2016, rising to $60 a barrel in 2017.

“We have also lowered our long-term price deck for Brent to $75 a barrel. This reflects a combination of upstream efficiencies and cost deflation in oilfield services, which will push down marginal costs globally over the next few years,” Fitch added.

Elsewhere, Khalid al-Falih, chairman of state-owned Saudi Aramco, told the Financial Times it would continue to meet "customer demand" adding that the Saudi government did not want to change tack ahead of the 4 December OPEC meeting.

Away from crude markets, precious metals registered further declines, as a positive US jobs report, seen to be increasing the likelihood of an interest rate hike, sent the dollar soaring to record intraday highs against a basket of global currencies on Friday.

COMEX gold futures were broadly flat at $1,090.10 an ounce, as was spot gold at $1,090.61 an ounce. COMEX silver fell 0.42% or six cents to $14.63 an ounce, while spot platinum was 2.33% or $20.99 lower at $920.16 an ounce.

Base metals complex was largely mixed. In late afternoon trading on the London Metal Exchange, the three-month copper delivery futures contract fell further by 0.5% to $4,979.00 per metric tonne, extending the previous session’s losses.

Additionally, nickel (down 1.5%) and tin (down 0.2%) also traded lower. However, primary aluminium (up 0.7%), lead (up 0.1%) and zinc (up 0.3%) futures avoided a drop into negative territory.

Finally, headline agricultural futures were on a mixed patch, as Dave Lewis, chief executive of UK supermarket leader Tesco, told the Confederation of British Industry's annual conference in London that he expected major crop and soft commodities prices "to stay lower over the near term" and was preparing his company accordingly.

CBOT corn (up 0.20%), ICE cotton (up 0.04%), and CME live cattle (up 0.39%) were all trading higher in early US trading. However, CBOT wheat (down 1.10%) and ICE cocoa (down 0.34%) slipped into negative territory.