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Commodities: Cotton, cocoa hit new 52-week highs then fall back
Crude oil and agricultural futures were giving back some of the prior day's gains, but only after cocoa and cotton futures pushed to fresh 52-week highs on Tuesday, amid a backdrop of dollar weakness.
In the background, the spotlight was firmly on the ongoing tensions among lawmakers on Capitol Hill with regards to president Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, with House speaker Paul Ryan reportedly calling for more "surgical" tariffs and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn possibly headed for the exit if the Administration continued to push forward with its plans.
On a related note, some economists cautioned that - quite ironically - the imposition of tariffs might shave off a couple of percentage points from the rate of growth in US GDP in 2018.
To take note of as well, in a conference call with reporters sponsored by the Atlantic Council, Georgetown University International Economic Law professor Jennifer Hillman expressed concern that the end game being pursued by the Trump administration's was to force an exit of the US from the World Trade Organisation.
Against that backdrop, as of 1947 GMT, the Bloomberg commodity index was 0.34% higher to 89.00, while the US dollar spot index was 0.48% lower at 89.65 and just off its 52-week lows of 88.25.
In parallel, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for delivery in April were trading 0.08% lower at $62.52 a barrel on NYMEX.
ICE-traded May 2018 cotton on the other hand was down by 3.60% to $8.216 a bushel, while similarly-dated cocoa was off by 0.20% to $2,441 per metric tonne.
With the dollar headed lower, and despite reports that North Korea might be willing to support the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, April gold futures on COMEX were 1.16% ahead to $1,335.20/oz...
Silver was faring even better, with the May 2018 contract up by 2.24% to $16.78/oz..
The weaker Greenback was also cited as the chief factor weighing down base metals futures, with three-month LME copper rising from $6,936 per metric tonne at the opening bell to $7,004.
Yet overall trading across the complex was mixed, with traders at Sucden Financial describing turnover as between low and modest.
"Lead edged up to 2450 area and nickel gained ground above 13300 to 13650/70 where light Far East selling was noted," they pointed out.
Three-month LME lead finished the session at $2,438 per tonne and nickel at $13,680.