Commodities: WTI futures gain after DoE inventory data

Commodities were little changed on Thursday, with some analysts pointing to an apparent lack of conviction following the previous month's sharp gains as a factor dampening activity in markets.

As of 1753 GMT, the Bloomberg commodity index was edging lower by 0.02% to 88.59 even as the US dollar spot index gave back 0.32% to 91.87.

"Overall the general outright and spread markets have been erratic since the start of the year and we are yet to be convinced that there is a significant level of participation/conviction after such a heady December," said analysts at Sucden Financial.

Energy futures were mixed in reaction to the latest weekly stockpile data from the Department of Energy.

According to the DoE, crude oil inventories shrank by 7.4m barrels a day (consensus: -5.1m b/d), pushing WTI futures for prompt month delivery higher by 0.60% to $62.0 a barrel.

February 2018 gasoline and heating oil contracts on the other hand were lower, although it was natural gas which was weakest, erasing 3.16% to trade down to $2.91/MMBtu.

It was a positive day in the metals' space for the most part, although moves were quite restrained.

Price moves in soft commodities were also rather limited outside of cocoa, with the ICE-traded March contract losing 1.0% to $1,888 per metric tonne.