Oil Firm as Markets Shrug Off Turkey Coup Bid

Graphic for News Item: Oil Firm as Markets Shrug Off Turkey Coup Bid

Oil prices edged higher with the turmoil unlikely to hit energy supplies.

Copper fell for a second session on pressure from a stronger dollar while corn prices jumped, underpinned by forecasts of hot-dry weather potentially reducing U.S. crop yields.

Turkey widened a crackdown on suspected supporters of a failed military coup, taking the number of people rounded up in the armed forces and judiciary to 6,000, and the government said it was in control of the country and economy.

Spot gold, which fell more than one percent to a low of $1,323.7, was down 0.7 percent to $1,328.60 an ounce by 0523 GMT. Bullion fell more than 2 percent last week, the first weekly decline in seven weeks.

“Turkey is not a big oil producer nor consumer, and the oil market appears to be displaying fatigue in response to repeated counts of geopolitical ‘events’ in the last few weeks, and thus only seems to react more strongly to events that matter on the fundamental side,” said Vyanne Lai, an economist at National Australia Bank.

“Gold prices had risen quite a bit in the aftermath of Brexit but now prices are just holding at elevated level.”

The U.S. dollar gained on the yen as investors unwound safe-haven trades in the wake of the failed Turkish coup. [MKTS/GLOB]

“Gold prices are feeling some kind of pressure because of the increasing easing of risk aversion,” said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong’s Wing Fung Financial Group.

“People have formed expectations that central banks worldwide have to include more stimulus packages in their monetary policies, leading to risk asset appreciation.”

For energy markets, Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait, a key chokepoint for oil which handles about 3 percent of global shipments, mainly from Black Sea ports and the Caspian region, was reopened on Saturday after being shut for several hours after Friday’s attempted military coup.

“The market is looking past the coup,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at Sydney’s CMC Markets. “There is no disruption to shipping. There is nothing in terms of short-term risk (to oil supply).

Brent crude futures rose 20 cents to $47.81 a barrel after closing up 24 cents in the previous session, while U.S. crude was little changed at $45.98 a barrel after ending the previous session up 27 cents.

London copper fell for a second consecutive session, while Chicago corn rose one percent. [MET/L] [GRA/]

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