Commodities: Saudi Arabia not bent on flooding oil markets, reports say

Gains in energy and agricultural futures offset losses in metals, with the former boosted by reports that Saudi Arabia´s new energy minister would seek to mend fences with other producer countries at Thursday´s OPEC ministerial meeting.

Khalid Al-Falih was intending to use the venue to repair relationships with his peers after April´s failed attempts by some countries to broker an output freeze, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. The Middle Eastern Kingdom would reportedly move to reassure that it was not intending on flooding markets.

Likewise, placing a cap on the group´s output of oil would be considered, but any deal was unlikely to affect then current output levels, the same report said.

Energy futures were bid only slightly higher ahead of the OPEC meeting. As of 20:50 BST, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were up by only a tame 0.14% to $49.17 per barrel on the ICE.

July 2016 natural gas futures on the other hand rocketed 3.93% to $2.38/MMbtu in NYMEX trading.

RBOB Gasoline futures for July 2016 were advancing 0.79% to $1.6261 per gallon.

Gold futures were failing to capitalise on the retreat in the greenback´s value, with August 2016 futures for the yellow metal down by 0.36% to $1,213.10/oz. on COMEX.

Nevertheless, it was industrial metals that were faring worst, with COMEX-traded copper futures lower by 1.10% to $2.0725 per pound.

Iron Ore 62% Fe, CFR China (TSI) futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on the other hand were last up by 3 cents to $44.78 per metric tonne.

Spot platinum was down 0.85% to $971.09 per metric tonne.

Soft commodities were mixed, with July corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rising by 2.22% to $4.1375 per bushel, alongside similar gains for wheat.

Cotton#2 futures on the ICE were losing 1.20% to $63.17 per pound.

Bloomberg´s commodity index was advancing 0.67% to 85.91 as the US dollar spot index declined 0.53% to 95.38.