Commodities: US jobs report met with indifference

The commodities space ended the day on a mixed note following a US jobs report that economists at Barclays described as ‘neither too hot nor too cold’, for which reason they believe the Fed is on track to first raise rates come September.

The American economy created 223,000 jobs in April (consensus: 220,000) while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4% from 5.5%, as expected. Nonetheless, growth in average wages was tepid, clocking in at 2.1% year-on-year versus the 2.2% year-on-year pace which analysts had been forecasting.

Three-month copper futures on the LME ended the session down by 0.4% at $6,380 per metric tonne on the LME.

Front month Brent futures finished the day off by 0.291% to stand at 65.35 per barrel by the close as euro/dollar dipped a bit, edging lower by 0.29% to 1.1217.

Corn futures on LIFFE were higher by 0.2% to €155.50 per metric tonne.

Acting as a backdrop, German bunds broke their eight-day slide as markets seemingly found their footing following the past week’s liquidation of overcrowded trades by investors.

In the afternoon gold futures were edging slightly higher, rising by 0.41% to $1,187 per ounce on COMEX.