I. Precious Metals
Gold
Gold prices dropped 0.3 percent at $1,255.7 an ounce on Tuesday as the dollar strengthened on increasing bets that the Federal Reserve will raise U.S. interest rates in December. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said in Sydney he "could be fine" with raising rates in December, but would first like to see how the economy and inflation progressed. Traders have priced in a 70 percent chance that the Fed will raise rates at a Dec. 13-14 meeting, up from last week. The prospect of interest rate hike was damaging to gold. The dollar hit an 11-week high against a basket of six major currencies, and breached above 97.5, the highest since July, to around 97.7. The dollar index is consolidating at around 97.6, retaining steam for further hike in near term, and is expected to breach above the key mark of 98, making dollar-denominated gold more expensive for holders of other currencies. Investors awaited Wednesday's release of minutes of the latest Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting to see how close the central bank came last month to hiking rates.
On chart, gold could find strong support at around $1,250 with the 100-week and 50-week moving average converging with the lower band of the downward path, suggesting the level is unlikely to be breached. In case that gold fell sharply to the range between $1,200 and $1,230, gold would be kept under great pressure, endangering the integral mark of $1,200. According to current moving trend, gold is more likely to move gradually to the aforementioned range ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting in December.

Silver
Silver was down 0.9 percent at $17.47 an ounce. But the rangebound offered few guidance on its future movement. The white metal did not stabilize until it fell to the 200-day moving average, a key support still working that would make it very likely to jump toward the 20-day moving average. It is likely to trace back to $18. But the resistance of the intersection of the 20-day, 50-day and 100-day moving average shall be closely watched, suggesting that silver is expected to see downturn in the longer term.

II. Commodities
Crude Oil
Oil prices on Tuesday retreated from one-year highs, after OPEC said it was trying to reach a global agreement to cap production for at least six months amid doubts about how much that would reduce a crude glut. The International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog of the West, said it was unclear how rapidly global oil supply could fall in line with demand even if the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and major producer Russia agreed on a steep output cut. On Tuesday, Brent crude settled down 73 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $52.41 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 56 cents, or 1 percent, to settle at $50.79.
Oil has rallied than 13 percent in less than two weeks since OPEC proposed its first production curbs in eight years. Tailwinds has been priced in. Any downbeat news would weigh on oil prices unless the agreement was fully implemented or posted further positive impact. But Igor Sechin, Russia's most influential oil executive and the head of Rosneft, said his company will not cut or freeze oil production as part of a possible agreement with OPEC. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the base-case scenario for Russia would be to leave current output unchanged.

Copper
The LME copper ended down 0.7 percent at $4,812 a tonne on a stronger dollar and technical pressure. In general, copper still steadied at around a 10-month high, retaining strong momentum in near term. Investors raised their expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates before year-end, raising risk appetite of the dollar assets. The metal used in construction was weighed down, but still held at around a 10-month high as the dollar hit an 11-week high against a basket of six major currencies. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton widened her lead in opinion polls, sending dollar’s risk appetite higher.

Soybean
At the Chicago Board of Trade, November soybeans settled down 1/4 cent at $9.54-1/4 a bushel on Tuesday. December soymeal closed up $2.2 at $300.3 a tonne. December soyoil fell 0.47 cents to $33.35 cents. Soybean fell as traders cut positions ahead of a monthly U.S. government crop report. But strong export demand capped soybean’s losses. USDA reported export inspections of U.S. soybeans in the latest week at 1.801 million tonnes, above a range of trade expectations for 1.0 million to 1.2 million tonnes. The trading volume of CBOT soybeans was expected to stood at 236,041 lots.

Dealing Room, ICBC Beijing Branch
Lv Yan

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