Commodities: OPEC´s production hits highest level since at least 2008

Commodity prices slid lower, with agricultural and energy futures registering the steepest declines.

Out on the Chicago Board of Trade, corn futures for delivery in December 2016 fell 2.40% to $3.37 a bushel while those for wheat declined 2.88% to $3.96.

ICE-traded cotton on the other hand jumped 2.73% to reach $68.97 a pound after the US Department of Agriculture cut its estimate of domestic inventories by more than was expected.

Soybean futures also gained on the back of official data pointing to lower than expected production.

In parallel, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries´s latest tally of its members´ production, using secondary data sources, revealed a 220,000 barrel a day jump in the cartel´s output, to 33.39m b/d - the highest since at least 2008.

That served to send crude oil futures yet again, despite remarks from the group´s Secretary General regarding the likelihood of an output cut when OPEC next meets.

“We are confident of Russia’s commitments,” OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

In the previous session, top officials from Rosneft and Lukoil said their companies would abide by any instructions from the Kremlin.

Also weighing on the commodities space was strength in the US dollar.

Bloomberg´s commodity index dropped 0.61% to 85.65 as the US dollar spot index advanced 0.28% to 97.97.

December 2016 gold futures gained 0.30% to $1,257.56/oz..