EUROPEAN COMMODITIES UPDATE: Crude slips as sentiment is hit on NVIDIA news, focus ahead of Powell and Trump

Crude Oil: WTI Oct -0.8% Brent Nov -0.8%

• Downside in the crude complex was exacerbated by reports that China's CAC has reportedly informed firms such as Alibaba (9988 HK / BABA) and ByteDance to terminate their testing and orders of NVIDIA's (NVDA) RTX Pro 6000D, via FT citing sources; in order to focus on China's domestic semiconductor industry.


• This sparked risk aversion across the board, with the US-China trade war seemingly heating up under the bonnet.


• In APAC trade, crude futures slightly eased back from this week's peak after rallying yesterday, with support seen after a report that Russia's Transneft informed producers it is restricting oil storage in its systems and that Russia could be forced to cut oil output.


• US Private Inventory Data (bbls): Crude -3.4mln (exp. -0.9mln), Distillate +1.9mln (exp. +1.0mln), Gasoline -0.7mln (exp. +0.1mln), Cushing -0.4mln. - little sustained move seen on the release.


• WTI currently resides in a 62.91-63.55/bbl range while Brent sits in a USD 67.01-67.68/bbl range.

Precious Metals: Gold -0.7%, Silver -2.2%, Palladium -2.3%

• Precious metals decline with headwinds seen from a firmer dollar alongside selling pressure in metals, including a 1% drop in silver, shortly after Shanghai commodities trade got underway, and with demand subdued ahead of today's Fed rate decision.


• Traders look ahead to the FOMC rate decision and Powell's press conference, whereby US President Trump will be giving remarks on Fox during the presser, thus headline risk around that time is elevated.


• Deutsche Bank lifts gold price forecasts next year to USD 4,000/oz average (prev. USD 3,700/oz); Silver lifted to USD 45/oz (prev. USD 40/oz)


• Spot gold currently resides in a USD 3,662.63-3,695.52/oz range with yesterday's high (USD 3,703.24/oz) the latest all time high.

Base Metals: 3M LME Copper -1.7%

• Base metals are lower across the board amid the broader risk aversion and firmer USD sparked by reports that China's CAC has reportedly informed firms such as Alibaba (9988 HK / BABA) and ByteDance to terminate their testing and orders of NVIDIA's (NVDA) RTX Pro 6000D, via FT citing sources.


• 3M LME copper fell back under USD 10k/t and resides in a USD 9,931.05-10,136.70/t range at the time of writing.

17 Sep 2025 - 10:15- ForexEU Research- Source: Newsquawk