Commodities: WTI and grains wanted in thin trading ahead of Fed

Commodities found a bid at the start of the week, even as the Greenback edged higher, as traders positioned themselves ahead of the US Federal Reserve's rate announcement scheduled for the following Wednesday.

By 1829 BST, the Blooomberg commodity index was adding 0.27% to 63.63 while the US dollar spot index was 0.08% higher to 98.08.

Traders at Sucden Financial described trading conditions as typically light during the summer holidays.

Nevertheless, September West Texas Intermediate was 0.94% higher to $56.73 a barrel on NYMEX, albeit a much smaller 0.22% advance for similarly dated Brent to $63.63 a barrel on ICE.

Gasoline futures on NYMEX on the other hand gave back 0.62% and were changing hands at $1.8627 a gallon.

Among soft commodities, September wheat on the CBoT put on 1.97% to $5.0575 a bushel and December corn was up by 0.71% to $4.2750 a bushel.

Out on the LME meanwhile, three-month copper futures rose from $5,965 per metric tonne at the opening bell to $6,018 per tonne.