Commodities: Precious metals continue to advance

Gold futures for delivery in August traded on COMEX edged higher by 0.25% to finish the session at $1,290.10, while silver futures slipped 0.25% to $17.40/oz. despite pronounced strength in the US greenback.

Spot platinum on the other hand lost 1.41% to finish at $976.91/oz.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were losing 1.02% to $48.38 per barrel on the ICE, alongside a similarly-sized retreat in heating oil and RBOB gasoline futures.

July 2016 natural gas futures was the outlier, gaining 0.54% $2.60/MMbtu.

Agricultural commodities were also swathed in red, with the September 2016 corn futures contract off by 0.70% to $4.27 per bushel.

CBoT-traded wheat futures for delivery in July retreated 1.12% to $4.8575 per bushel.

Prices for industrial metals were mixed.

Three-month LME-traded copper futures were tacking on 0.1% to $4,529.50/metric tonne as of 13:30 BST, while similarly-dated zinc futures surrendered 1.9%.

Commenting on the outlook for the price of copper in 2016, in a research note dated 13 June analysts at Macquarie said: "after reducing Q2 by 3.3% to $4,690/t given recent price shifts, we now see prices 5-8% lower in H2 at $4,600-4,800/t on a lack of triggers to carry it back to $5k/t."

Cocoa futures on Euronext LIFFE were advancing 0.3% to £2,306.00 per metric tonne as of 15:15 BST and White Sugar Futures declined 1.1% to $521.70/metric tonne.

As of 15:22 BST the US dollar spot index was rising by 0.63% to 94.96 and Bloomberg's commodity index 0.92% lower at 88.27.