Commodities: Energy futures, copper slip ahead of US Fed
Commodity prices weakened on Wednesday following the release of data showing a larger-than-expected build in weekly US crude oil and product inventories, even as investors waited on the result of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.
As of 1845 BST, and in reaction to the latest US Department of Energy stockpile data, front month Brent crude oil futures were declining by 0.37% to $61.91 a barrel on the ICE, although RBOB gasoline futures on the NYMEX were 0.82% higher to $1.7355 a barrel
According to the Energy Information Administration, the DoE's statistical arm, commercial crude oil inventories in the States over the week ending on 14 June dropped by 3.1m barrels (consensus: -1.1m) to reach 482.4m.
Gasoline stockpiles in the US also shrank, by 1.7m barrels, the DoE said.
In the background, the US dollar spot index was down by 0.23% to 97.42, alongside a 0.55% fall for the Bloomberg commodity index to 77.81.
Among soft commodities, December corn on CBoT was down by 2.32% to $4.5225 per bushel, alongside a 2.52% drop to $5.22 per bushel for similarly-dated wheat futures.
August gold on COMEX meanwhile was off by 0.12% to $1,349.10/oz..
Three-month copper futures on the LME meanwhile finished at $5,918 per metric tonne, after opening at $5,962 per tonne, giving back the prior session's gains which traders linked to the ongoing strikes at Chile's Codelco.