Commodities: Saudi Arabia hikes price for oil to Asia, Rio chief cautious

Crude oil futures ended the session higher after Saudi Arabia increased its prices for oil cargoes heading to Asia in June by the most since April 2015.

State-owned Saudi Aramco lifted its selling price for Arab Light oil by $1.10 a barrel to 25 cents over the regional benchmarks for Oman and Dubai, in anticipation of increased demand over the summer from refineries.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg had anticipated a 65 cent increase.

Front month Brent crude futures finished the session higher by 0.58% to $44.88 per barrel on the ICE, alongside gains for West Texas Intermediate of 0.973% to $44.22.

The continuing fires in Canada's oil producing region of Alberta - which might affect up to 1.0m barrels a day of capacity - were cited by some observers as another factor pushing prices higher.

Heading the other way, June 2016 natural gas futures were down by 2.90% to $2.08/MMBtu.

Three-month LME-traded copper futures dropped 1.7% to $4,788 per metric tonne, while similarly-dated nickel futures retreated 3.0% to end the day at $9,162.50 per metric tonne.

Speaking in Sydney, Rio Tinto chief Sam Walsh told reporters markets' optimism following the recent rebound in metals' prices might yet prove unfounded.

"I believe in that environment, calling the bottom is a brave move," he said.

Walsh also doused talk his company might be interested in assets put on the auction block by rivals.

Trading volumes across China's three biggest commodity exchanges had retreated back to levels similar to those of a year ago and were at more than half their 22 April peaks, Bloomberg reported.

Precious metals were little changed, with June 2016 COMEX gold futures up by just 0.02% at 1,274.70 as of 19:03 BST, despite strength in the US dollar.

Bloomberg's commodity index retreated 0.87% to 166.68 as the spot US dollar index rose 0.64% to 93.78.

Agricultural futures came under heavy selling pressure on Thursday, with July 2016 CBoT corn futures falling 0.86% to $3.7350 per bushel, while wheat lost 1.43% to $4.6450 and the ICE cotton #2 contract another 1.02% to $62.14 per pound.

Cocoa futures on LIFFE erased 1.0% to close at $2,276 per metric tonne while those for white sugar surrendered 3.3% to $461.20 per tonne.

CME live cattle futures on the other hand advanced 1.79% to $1.1955 per pound.