Commodities: Sugar, gasoline futures jump

Commodities managed to close higher despite a strong headwind from a rising US dollar, with sugar and gasoline futures posting the largest gains.

Thus, Bloomberg´s commodity index was edging higher by 0.15% to 83.21 as of 1735 BST as the US dollar spot index jumped 0.75% to hit 96.01.

Most agricultural futures were moving higher, with corn futures gaining 1.82% to $3.3600 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, while those of live cattle were up 1.03% at $1.0808 per pound.

Over on Euronext LIFFE, white sugar futures were to be seen 3.9% higher at $577.40 per tonne as of 15:30 BST.

Cocoa futures on ICE lost 0.85% to $2,808.00 per metric tonne.

Crude oil futures were again to be seen lower on the heels of reports of increasing exports out of Libya and Nigeria.

West Texas Intermediate dropped 2.05% to $43.01 per barrel while Brent futures retreated 1.52% to $45.88.

October 2016 NYMEX-traded gasoline futures was the exception in the energy patch, notching up gains of 3.08% to $1.4743 per gallon.

On 14 September, Libya´s state-owned oil company lifted curbs on sales of crude from three of the country´s ports: Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina, potentially unlocking as much as 300,000 barrels a day in production, according to Bloomberg.

In parallel, Exxon Mobil was said to be prepared to restart exports of Qua Iboe crude, which in 2015 saw overseas sales of 340,000 barrels a day.

Precious metals were mostly lower too, with gold futures for December delivery slipping 0.48% to $1,311.70 on COMEX.

Similarly-dated silver futures lost 1.0% to $18.85/oz..

Spot platinum lost 1.85% to $1,013/oz..

Copper futures on COMEX on the other hand edged up by 0.21% to $2.1640 a pound, yet zinc, nickel and tin futures were all lower in late-afternoon trading on the LME.