Oil prices slid on Thursday after OPEC and allies such as Russia agreed to ease record supply curbs from August, though the drop was cushioned by hopes for a swift U.S. demand pick-up after a bigger-than-expected drawdown from the country’s crude stocks. Brent crude LCOc1 fell 13 cents, or 0.3%, at $43.66 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 dropped 18 cents, or 0.4%, to $41.02 a barrel. They rose 2% the previous day, helped by the U.S. crude inventories drop. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, agreed on Wednesday to scale back oil production cuts from August as the global economy slowly recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. OPEC+ has been cutting output since May by 9.7 million barrels per day, or 10% of global supply, but from August, cuts will officially taper to 7.7 million bpd until December. Despite the official OPEC+ accord, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said production cuts in August and September would end up amounting to about 8.1 million-8.3 million bpd, more than the headline number. That’s because countries in the grouping which over-produced earlier this year would compensate by making extra August-September cuts, the minister said.

 

Gold held steady above the psychological level of $1,800/ounce on Thursday, as concerns about rising coronavirus cases and lingering Sino-U.S. tensions countered optimism over promising early data for a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Spot gold was little changed at $1,810.33 per ounce. U.S. gold futures were mostly unchanged at $1,814.20. More than 13.5 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 580,836? have died, according to a Reuters tally. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to Hong Kong's special status under U.S. law to punish China for what he called "oppressive actions" against the former British colony, prompting Beijing to warn of retaliatory sanctions. 

The dollar was up on Thursday morning in Asia, reversing earlier losses as investors turn towards the safe-haven asset. Wednesday’s hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine dimmed, with doubts surfacing over the efficacy of Moderna's potential COVID-19 vaccine in immunizing against the disease. Moderna said on Tuesday that all 45 volunteers participating in a study for the vaccine developed high levels of virus-killing antibodies. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump privately ruled out further sanctions against Chinese entities involved in enacting Hong Kong’s national security laws on Wednesday, attempting to diffuse escalating U.S.-China tensions. But tensions remain in place, with China threatening to retaliate after Trump also stripped Hong Kong of its special trading privileges and signed an executive order for initial sanctions on Tuesday.

London copper was little changed on Thursday as investors waited for key China economic data that could shed light on demand in the world’s top metals consumer, though U.S.-China tensions and rising global COVID-19 cases kept market sentiment subdued. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange was virtually unchanged at $6,385 a tonne. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, however, fell as much as 3.1% to 50,770 yuan ($7,264.79) a tonne. Chinese data on urban investment and industrial output for June and gross domestic product for the second quarter is expected to show improvement as the country has taken several steps to revive its economy after containing the virus outbreak. A sizzling rally that pushed copper prices to two-year highs will lose some of its heat in the coming months as investors take a hard look at supply and demand fundamentals. 

President of the Shetkari Sanghatana, Anil Ghanwat, told BusinessLine that their organisation has asked its members to plant brinjal, soybean and corn. Since the seeds are banned the seeds are available through hidden means for planting. The Shetkari Sanghatana wants the Genetically Modified (GM) technology to be opened up, therefore the farmers would get better yield for their crops. If the technology is unshackled then they will no longer resort to hidden means for procuring the seeds from the black market, he said. Brinjal is one of the largest cultivated vegetables in the country. The government has not allowed the cultivation of GM brinjal. The whole process of validating GM brinjal seeds has been stalled due to objections by food safety activists and NGOs since the last 10 years.In Maharashtra, GM soybean seeds can be planted in Rabbi season. He added that the cotton planting season across Maharashtra is almost over. It is estimated that out of the total area under cotton, almost 25 per cent of the area is planted with HTBT cotton seeds. Farmers have also started spraying herbicides, which have burnt the weeds in the fields but the cotton plants remained untouched. It proves that the cotton variety is genuine HTBT and it will help reduce a lot of farming expenditure.