Commodities: Weak tone in commodities outside of energy

Trading in the commodity complex had a slightly weak tone to it on Wednesday, with the exception of the energy patch, ahead of Friday´s US jobs report, which might heavily influence rate hike bets Stateside.

Bloomberg´s commodity index was edging 0.27% lower to 159.50 points, alongside a 0.26% dip in the spot US dollar index.

As of 17:14 front month West Texas Intermediate futures were up 0.987% to $39.53 a barrel and Brent crude was 0.778% firmer at $38.58.

Nevertheless, the May 2016 WTI contract was well off an intra-day high of $39.85 per barrel.

Data from the US Department of Energy showing a 2.3m build in crude oil stockpiles over the latest reference week failed to give crude oil futures a boost (consensus: 3.1m).

However, the smaller than expected rise for inventories occurred as imports dropped at a pace of 636,000 barrels a day last week.

Natural gas futures on NYMEX on the other hand were sporting a large gain, with the May 2016 contract up by 2.98% to $1.90 per MMBtu.

April 2016 NYMEX RBOB April 2016 gasoline was down 0.84% to $144.16 per gallon.

In parallel, LME-traded three-month copper futures were down by 0.6% to $4,881.00 per metric tonne as of 15:34GMT.

Gold futures were also off a tad, with the June 2016 futures retreating 0.82% to 1,227.40 per ounce on COMEX.

Over on the Chicago Board of Trade, May 2016 corn futures were losing 0.74% to $370.25 per bushel and live cattle futures on the CME were off by 1.95% to $123.08 per pound.