Commodities Round-up: Oil, gold futures recover as Fed rate hike expectations ease

Oil and precious metals showed signs of a recovery on Wednesday (14 September), shaking off the previous session's sell-off driven by rising US Federal Reserve interest rate hike expectations, as comments by officials were less hawkish than anticipated. At 6:07am BST, the Brent front month futures contract was up 0.28% or 13 cents to $47.23 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate was 0.45% or 20 cents higher at $45.10 per barrel, as traders moved to cover their shorts, i.e. bets that the oil price is going to fall further.

Analysts at Natixis noted that in the last 12 months, oil prices have been driven significantly by non-fundamental factors such as speculative positions and US dollar moves.

"We believe physical balances in the near-term will remain sensitive to oil price recovery and vice versa," they said.

"The time required for full and sustainable rebalancing of the markets will depend significantly on how various factors – including Opec strategy, capital expenditure cuts, demand for oil products and global growth – pan out in the near-term."

Away from the oil market, precious metals rose for a second successive session. At 6:17am BST, Comex gold for December delivery was up 0.13% or $1.70 to $1,323.70 an ounce, while Comex silver was 0.16% or 3 cents higher at $19.01 an ounce.

Concurrently, spot platinum was up 0.32% or $3.34 to $1,039.44 an ounce, with all three main precious metals alternating between losses and gains.