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Commodities: Crude oil dips as Macron calls for 'New Accord' with Iran
(WebFG News) - Weaker energy quotes weighed on the wider commodities complex after French president Emmanuel Macron proposed negotiating a new deal with Tehran, in order to help contain its nuclear programme and in a bid to keep Washington on board.
In a press conference during the second day of his state visit to Washington, Macron said he had discussed "a new deal" with Trump aimed at addressing Iran's expansion in the Middle East and its ballistic missile programme.
Against that backdrop, as of 2025 BST West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were 1.25% lower at $67.79 a barrel on the ICE.
The tone in crude oil futures trading on Tuesday had been generally weak throughout the session, after Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh reportedly said there was no need to extend OPEC and Russia's current oil output curbs beyond 2018.
That was despite remarks from Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warning the White House not to pull-out from the deal negotiated with Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France.
"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly," Rouhani said, going on to warn of "severe consequences" if the US pulled out.
As of 2025 BST, the Bloomberg commodity index was edging lower by 0.13% to 89.08, alongside a dip of 0.205 to 90.76 for the US dollar spot index.
Nevertheless, in the background traders were waiting on weekly oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday evening, which would be followed by those from the US Department of Energy the next day.
To take note of as well, analysts at StanChart bumped up its 2018 price forecast for Brent by $10 a barrel to $71 and that for 2019 by $13 to $75, highlighting the degree of compliance between OPEC and non-OPEC countries with their agreement to cut their combined output by 1.8m barrels a day until the end of 2018.
Bulk metals prices were mostly on the back foot as well, although copper was wanted on reports that talks between Chile and workers at La Escondida mine had achieved scant progress.
Commodities were strong outside of energy and metals, with fresh gains for July 2018 ICE cocoa standing out as the contract added 3.26% to $2,815 per metric tonne.
Similarly-dated CBoT wheat was also putting in a big advance, rising 2.05% to $4.8425 a bushel.
Precious metals were higher too, with June 2018 gold on COMEX rising 0.72% to $1,333.50/oz..