Commodities: Crude schleps south amid spectres of oversupply, slowing growth

At 15:09 GMT, Nymex-priced West Texas Intermediate was down 1.37% to $44.65 a barrel, while Intercontinental-listed Brent dropped 0.88% to $45.95 a barrel.

This after a run-up on Wednesday in the wake of Donald Trump's shock-to-many win in the US presidential election.

"Oil continues to be dogged by persistent oversupply concerns while fears over slowing global growth have sparked discussions of a potential decline in demand," said FXTM's Lukman Otunuga.

"This terrible combination of oversupply anxieties and tepid demand concerns may be the ingredients needed for sellers to send WTI back below $40," the research analyst said.

Investors were obviously cautious ahead of the next OPEC meeting on 30 November, and questions lingering on whether the cartel would be able to strike a successful freeze deal.

In its latest monthly report, released on Thursday, the International Energy Agency said that if OPEC failed to agree a cut in November then "the market will remain in surplus throughout the year [...] if the supply surplus persists in 2017, there must be some risk of prices falling back.”

"From a technical standpoint bears need to conquer $44 for a further decline towards $43," Otunuga said in a statement.

Also weighing on prices, as of 1635 GMT the US dollar index was edging higher by 0.34% to 98.96.

Meantime, metals prices were -- excluding perceived safe-haven gold -- mostly rising.

Comex-quoted Gold was down 0.44% to $1267.9 an ounce, which was some distance of the highs it hit on Wednesday when defensive-asset hungry traders pushed it higher.

"Risk aversion amid the uncertainty should clearly support gold but market sensitivity continues to direct investors to riskier assets consequently leaving the zero-yielding metal vulnerable to losses," said Otunuga.

"Gold may maintain ground in the new trading week as participants reassess the conditions of the global financial landscape. From a technical standpoint, bulls must break back above $1285 for a further incline towards $1308," he added.

On Comex, silver was up 0.69% to $18.51 an ounce and copper was up 3.58% to 254.75 cents a pound.

London Metals Exchange prices on three-month metals were mostly higher: copper rose 3.39% to $5413 a MT, aluminum gained 1.27% to $1753 a MT and zinc added 0.48% to $2490 a MT, but tin shed 1.25% to $21,275 a MT.

Rabobank Financial Markets Research said commodities such as iron ore and copper had been spurred higher by hopes of a surge in US building projects.

This, it said, and the resultant stirring of inflation expectations has reinvigorated expectations for a December rate hike after yesterday’s initial doubts.

"The market’s implied probability of a December rate hike by the Fed gyrated widely yesterday but has settled on the likelihood that a rate hike this year is strong," the Dutch broker said.

In agricultural futures, Chicago Board of Trade-listed corn was up 0.51% to 342.5 cents a bushel at 15:09 GMT, while wheat rose 0.12% to 407.25 cents a bushel.

ICE-quoted cocoa faded 0.57% to $2437 a MT and cotton No.2 rose 1.07% to 69.02 cents a pound. Live cattle was up 0.6% to 104.1 cents a pound.