Commodities: Crude oil, iron ore futures drop
A drop in energy quotes weighed on the commodities space at the start of the week.
Crude oil futures retreated as a top Iranian oil official said the country would not join a proposed freeze on oil output by the world´s largest producers of crude until its exports had recovered to the levels seen before economic sanctions were placed on Tehran, in response to its nuclear arms programme.
Rokneddin Javadi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Co., said the country´s exports would not surpass the 2.2m barrel a day mark until the middle of summer, the Mehr news agency reported.
Iranian exports jumped by over 40% to reach 2m barrels a day in April, according to the International Energy Association.
Bloomberg´s commodity index was losing 0.58% to stand at 84.38 as of 19:58 BST.
Oil prices also slipped on reports that Canadian tight-oil producers Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada were working to restart output.
In parallel, the US dollar spot index was down by 0.12% to 95.222.
Heating oil futures for delivery in June were down by 1.17% to $1.4726 per gallon in NYMEX trading, as similarly-dated natural gas futures dipped 0.19% to $2.06/MMBtu.
RBOB gasoline futures were the exception, gaining 0.46% to $1.6431 per gallon.
Spot platinum prices were under pressure the most in the precious metals space, retreating 0.85% to $1,014.00/oz..
July copper futures on COMEX on the other hand were off by just 0.05% to $2.0545/lb..
Iron ore with 52% content lost 6.7% to end at $51.22 a dry metric tonne on Monday, according to Metal Bulletin.
SGX AsiaClear iron ore futures fell as much as 6.3% to $45.72, their lowest since February, according to Bloomberg data.
June 2016 gold futures slipped 0.13% to $1,251.30/oz..
Gold will head much lower if the US dollar continues to strengthen
To take note of, the last time the DXY was trading at the 100-point mark, back in December 2015, gold was changing hands at $1,050/oz. and there was no reason for that not to happen again should the dollar revisit that level, analysts at Citi said in a research report sent to clients.
Indeed, should DXY rise past the 100-point level there was nothing standing in the way of gold dropping below $100/oz., Citi added.
Soft commodities were trading mixed, with July 2016 corn futures on CBoT higher by 0.89% to $3.98 per bushel and ICE July 2016 cocoa futures jumping 1.61% to $2,959.99 per metric tonne.
Live cattle CME August 2016 futures meanwhile were retreating 2.55% to $1.1445 per pound.