I. Precious Metals
Gold

Gold prices dipped to a fresh six-month low on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar strengthened, making bullion more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

Spot gold declined 0.3 percent at $1,255.17 per ounce, after hitting its lowest since mid-December at $1,252.04. U.S. gold futures for August delivery settled down $3.80, or 0.3 percent, at $1,256.10 per ounce.

Gold prices have shed more than 3 percent this month - the biggest monthly loss since September - driven by a dollar rally, a large decline in gold held by exchange-traded funds and a sharp fall in speculative bets.

Technical indicators suggest gold will continue to fall, with support at the psychologically-important level of $1,250 then at $1,236.60, gold's December low.

Silver

Silver fell 0.5 percent at $16.17 an ounce. We maintain our view that silver will continue to soften. On chart, downside risk lingers in the near term as the 10-day moving average has crossed below the 20-day moving average. The next support can be found at the psychological support of $16.

II. Commodities
Crude Oil

Oil prices jumped on Wednesday as plunging U.S. crude stockpiles compounded supply worries in a market already uncertain about Libyan exports, a production disruption in Canada and Washington's demands that importers stop buying Iranian crude from November.

U.S. crude futures rose $2.23, or 3.16 percent, to settle at $72.76 a barrel. The contract touched $73.06 a barrel, the highest since Nov. 28, 2014. Brent crude rose $1.31, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $77.62 a barrel.

U.S. crude stocks fell nearly 10 million barrels last week, the most since Sept. 2016, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose less than expected, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for the NYMEX futures contract fell 2.7 million barrels, EIA said. Next week, Cushing storage number will include seven days of the Syncude outage. The math there would imply an even bigger draw than this week.

The front-month U.S. crude contract traded at $4.67 above the sixth-month contract, the most since July 2014. This encourages further drawdowns from storage. We have a bullish view on oil in the near term.

Copper

LME copper ended down 0.3 percent at $6,692.5 a tonne, paring losses after earlier in the session dropping to $6,667 a tonne, its lowest since April 4. Underlying supply/demand fundamentals were largely healthy, but prices had been undermined by tit-for-tat trade skirmishes. Profit-taking will dominate the market, pointing to a lackluster environment.

Soybean

U.S. soybean futures rose on Wednesday, but pared almost all losses late in the session despite of a softening tone from the White House to block Chinese firms from buying U.S. tech firms. August soybeans ended unchanged at $8.73 a bushel.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration unveiled a plan for a stronger security review process for foreign investors acquiring American technologies, softening its tone from previous remarks indicating it would specifically block Chinese investments.

CBOT August soymeal fell $0.50 to $332.30 a short tonne, while July soyoil rose 0.1 cent to 29.13 cents a pound.   

Dealing Room, ICBC Beijing Branch
                        Huang Han