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Commodities: Volatility in wheat, Chinese steel rebar

Commodities were rebounding on Tuesday as stocks managed to find a small bid following the previous day's thrashing, albeit amid sharp moves in some segments, such as agriculture.


Thus, May 2018 wheat futures were jumping 2.97% to $4.5950/oz., but alongside a 5.20% drop in the similarly-dated ICE cocoa contract.

Noteworthy as well were moves in Chinese futures, with that for 25mm steel rebar jumping from $615.7 per tonne to $637.5, after the Chinese city of Handan ordered steel mills to slash output by a quarter until mid-November as part of Beijing's anti-pollution drive.

Spot iron ore prices also gained some ground as Anglo American announced it had decided to suspende operations at its Minas Rio iron ore mine in Brazil for approximately 90 days.

Copper futures on copper meanwhile were up by 0.38% at $3.0615 a pound on COMEX.

Commenting on the outlook for the so-called red metal, in a summary of the previous week's price moves analysts at TD Securities said: "Recent news of China imposing tariffs on 128 American goods will likely keep the sentiment bearish.

"But such retaliatory actions may be more bark than bite, and recent news flow suggests negotiations with China are ongoing behind the scenes, which suggests the future for copper may not be as bleak as it appears."

In the background, at the weekend Caixin's Chinese manufacturing sector PMI printed at 51.0 for the month of March, down from a reading of 51.6 for February (consensus: 51.7).

As of 1841 BST, the US dollar spot index was edging higher by 0.13% to 90.166, alongside a 0.32% gain for Bloomberg's commodity index.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were 0.67% higher to $63.43 a barrel on NYMEX.

On 29 March, Baker Hughes reported that US rig count declined by seven last week to reach 797.