Commodities: Wheat, cocoa futures see sharpest losses
Commodities as a whole were lower on Monday, even as the US dollar lost ground, amid heavy selling in the agricultural space.
By the closing bell on Wall Street, the Bloomberg commodity index was 0.96% lower at 86.52 even as the US dollar index retreated 0.40% to 86.52.
Leading falls, May 2018 wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade lost 3.63% to end at $4.5075 a bushel, alongside a 3.05% drop in ICE-traded cocoa futures to $2,445 per metric tonne and a 1.96% fall in similarly-dated cotton #2 futures on ICE to 0.8213 US cents.
Base metals were also generally weaker, after data released overnight in China showed that in February new home prices rose in 44 cities in the Asian giant, down from 52 in January.
Against that backdrop, three-month LME copper futures slipped from $6,873 per metric tonne at the start of trading to end at $6,854.
In the energy patch, by the closing bell on Wall Street, Brent crude oil futures for May delivery were 0.14% lower at $66.12 per barrel on the ICE.
The NYMEX gasoline and natural gas contracts for April on the other hand were down by roughly one percentage point each.
Benefiting from the dip in the US dollar, gold futures on COMEX were ahead by 0.31% to $1,316.40/oz..