The latest Market Talks covering Commodities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
2020 GMT - Crude futures settle lower with the market watching for any breakthrough in diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but while Brent edges up 0.4% on the week, U.S. benchmark WTI falls 3.8%. WTI faces pressure from the U.S. market, which saw a weekly build in commercial crude stocks and a drop in refinery runs, says XS.com market analyst Linh Tran. "These factors have weakened WTI, while Brent remains supported by concerns over disruptions to international supply, pushing the spread between the two benchmarks to more than $10 per barrel." The possibility of a U.S. diesel export ban, although undecided, could further pressure WTI as refiners would have less incentive to raise operating rates and buy additional crude, she adds. WTI settles down 2.3% at $92.41 a barrel and Brent falls 2.1% to $104.32. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1931 GMT [Dow Jones]--U.S. natural-gas futures return some of the previous session's gains that were due to the outage on a pipeline in West Virginia operated by a unit of TC Energy. While no date for a resumption of service had been given by Friday morning, the fact the problem was confined to the regulator station "reduced concern that the outage will require a prolonged pipeline-integrity response," Gelber & Associates said in a note. LNG feedgas flows continue to support market balances, "but cooling demand is declining as the market moves deeper into the shoulder season," the firm adds. Nymex natural gas settles down 3.1% at $3.196/mmBtu. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1843 GMT - Livestock futures settle lower, with live cattle futures closing up 0.5% to $2.221 a pound while lean hog futures close down 0.7% to 68.975 cents a pound. For hogs, the movement of the day was a surprise to analysts, with gains expected after a seemingly friendly quarterly supply report from the USDA. The USDA will release its Cold Storage report at 3 p.m. eastern time, which will detail red meat stocks held in freezers. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1811 GMT - Gold futures snap a four-session losing streak as the U.S. dollar pulls back following four straight sessions of gains. Front-month gold gains 0.5% in New York to $4,286.20 a troy ounce, for a weekly loss of 2.3%. Silver rises 1.2% to $64.245 a troy ounce, ending the week down 3.5%. "Looking ahead, further softness in oil, the dollar and yields could support bullion, while stronger data and hawkish Fed guidance remain headwinds," Kaynat Chainwala of Kotak Neo says in a note. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1806 GMT - The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose by three this week to 455 and was up by 31 from a year ago, oil services company Baker Hughes reports. U.S. crude oil production has been running at record levels around 13.9 million barrels a day, according to the EIA which projects output will average 13.8 million b/d this year and close to 14.3 million barrels a day in 2027. "The rig count is up so we're going to have more crude oil coming down the pipe," says Mizuho's Robert Yawger. "We kind of need it here in the States." Natural gas rigs increased by 1 to 135, which was 18 higher than a week ago. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1704 GMT - The USDA will release its quarterly stocks report covering 3Q on September 30. Traders see the report as an indicator for how old crop demand fared. "This report hasn't brought much volatility in the last decade-plus, though it has produced bearish soybean moves in each of the last five years," says Matt Zeller of StoneX in a note. Attention is expected to grow next week, with traders right now focusing on implications from the Trump-Xi summit. CBOT grains have pared losses, with corn now down 0.4%, soybeans off 0.2%, and wheat losing 1.1%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1621 GMT - The U.S.-China summit held in Washington ended with a general lack of news, although USTR Jamieson Greer says that substantive announcements coming out of the summit will come on Monday. But the general sentiment following the summit is that the relationship between the U.S. and China remains saddled with "deep distrust," says analysts with Capital Economics in a note. "While the two sides can temporarily contain tensions, they remain at an impasse on many of their most important disagreements," analysts say. "This mutual suspicion helps to explain why the only concrete outcome was a short extension of the existing trade truce." They add that the summit did not constitute a "fundamental reset" of the relationship. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1556 GMT - Benchmark U.S. natural gas prices were 6% lower this summer than in 2025 despite unusually hot weather that drove up air-conditioning demand, the EIA says in a note. Henry Hub prices averaged $2.93/mmBtu from June through August. "Increased renewable electricity generation, record natural gas production, and ample natural gas inventories helped limit upward pressure on prices," the agency says, while maintenance at LNG terminals curbed demand growth. Natural gas-fired electricity generation increased by 7.5 billion kilowatt hours from the same period in 2025, while solar grew by 19.4 billion kWh and wind power by 9.3 billion kWh. "We estimate that additions in renewable capacity and generation reduced the amount of natural gas needed to meet higher summer electricity demand," the EIA adds. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1519 GMT - Gold futures are higher after four sessions of declines as the U.S. dollar slips and oil prices tread water awaiting clarity on U.S.-Iran diplomacy. "A stronger dollar not only weighs on gold because the metal is priced in U.S. dollars, but also reflects the flow of global liquidity toward U.S. assets, particularly in an environment of rising yields and growing expectations that interest rates will remain elevated," Rania Gule of XS.com says in a note. "I believe any meaningful short-term recovery in gold will first require genuine signs of weakness in the dollar, rather than merely a temporary pause in its advance." Gold for December delivery is up 0.4% in New York at $4,315.50 a troy ounce. Silver is up 1.1% at $64.705 a troy ounce. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1502 GMT - An unprecedented global capex cycle drives the resilient U.S. expansion fueling recent market trends, Deutsche Bank's George Saravelos says in a note. AI and government spending underpin the cycle, which Saravelos says constitutes a rare event. "CapEx booms tend to be sustained, multi-year events," he says, adding that the current capex boom may be one of the largest after World War II reconstruction and it could last for years. However, the dollar has trended weaker through previous capex cycles. "We would not chase the dollar higher after the last few weeks' repricing," Saravelos says. The WSJ Dollar Index falls 0.3%. (paulo.trevisani@wsj.com; @ptrevisani)
1457 GMT - The Trump administration says that it will announce news from the Thursday U.S.-China summit in Washington next week. Speaking to CNBC, USTR Jamieson Greer says that new trade agreements for certain goods were reached during the summit, with details coming on Monday. Greer did not specify what goods were discussed, with agriculture and rare earths among the numerous goods expected to have been discussed. The grains market will be watching for what gets announced next week, but until that confirmation exists futures are little moved. Most-active CBOT corn futures are down 1.3%, soybeans fall 1%, and wheat is down 2.4%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1449 GMT - Oil futures are lower with the market cautiously weighing diplomatic efforts seeking a U.S.-Iran agreement on the Strait of Hormuz. "Although diplomatic progress suggests the potential for further declines in crude prices, physical tightness is preventing a more decisive sell-off," Konstantinos Chrysikos of Kudo.com says in a note. "Caution remains as energy infrastructure in the Middle East is vulnerable to any new escalations." WTI is off 1.4% at $93.32 a barrel and Brent is down 1.2% at $105.35.
Comments