Commodities: WTI buoyed by DoE data, dip in US dollar
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Thursday 14 Mar 2019
(Sharecast News) - Commodities were awash in green on Wednesday, on the back of US dollar weakness and data revealing an unexpected drop in oil inventories Stateside.
As of 2032 GMT, the US dollar spot index was down by 0.51% and trading at 96.4420 while Bloomberg's commodity index was climbing 0.83% to 81.53
Weighing on the former were the results of successive votes in the UK Parliament which appeared to lessen the risk of a so-called 'hard Brexit', a positive for the economic outlook in both Britain and the euro area.
America's Department of Energy reported a 3.9m barrel (consensus: +2.655m) drawdown in commercial crude oil stockpiles over the week ending on 8 March.
While domestic output did edge lower and net imports were unchanged, analysts at Capital Economics expressed surprised at the drop in oil stocks, even as they conceded that "in terms of the bigger picture" demand was holding up well.
The consultancy also noted worries in the market around the ongoing situation in Venezuela.
Gasoline stockpiles also declined sharply, shrinking by 4.6m barrels as many refineries remained in maintenance, the DoE said.
Nonetheless, in parallel Bloomberg reported a sharp pick-up in buying of $60 puts on Brent, adding that some market watchers were pointing at finger Brazilian state-owned giant Petrobras, which might be trying to hedge part of its production.
Against that backdrop, April West Texas Intermediate jumped 2.57% to $58.33 a barrel on NYMEX with similarly-dated RBOB gasoline 2.91% higher at $1.8684 a gallon.
Three-month copper on LME was little changed, finishing at $6,472.5 per metric tonne.
But precious metals found a bid, with COMEX gold for April delivery up 0.9% to $1,309.80/oz. and spot platinum putting on 1.02% to $843.90/oz..
Most soft commodities were also moving higher, although wheat on CBoT was down by 1.27% to $4.4725 a bushel.
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