Commodities: Libyan oil production expected to recover to 900,000 barrels a day
The commodities space was for the most part lower on Friday as expectations for a slightly prompter increase in interest rates Stateside continued to weigh on gold and perhaps other commodities as well.
Gold futures for December delivery were thus off by $9.40 to $1,231.5 per ounce by the end of trading on COMEX .
Similarly, front month West Texas crude futures retreated by 68 cents to $92.27 per barrel over on the ICE, with some market commentary highlighting worries of a slowdown in economic growth worldwide.
Not to be missed in regard to the above, Libya’s oil production rose to 850,000 barrels a day on Thursday, National Oil Corp. spokesman Mohamed Elharari told Bloomberg News by phone from Tripoli. It was expected to recover to 900,000 barrels a day over the coming weekend.
Be that as it may, better-than-expected figures on industrial production out of the Eurozone and Japan were credited for a small gain in three-month copper futures on the LME. Those ended the day higher by 0.04% at $6,838 per metric tonne.
Lastly, wheat futures for December delivery declined 1.4% to close at $5.025 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.
On Thursday the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast global wheat production would climb to a record 719.95m metric tons, 0.5% more than previously expected, thanks to larger harvests in Europe and the Ukraine.