The Bloomberg Commodity Index was up around 0.2% in early trading this morning as firmer energy prices more than offset mostly weaker precious and industrial metal prices. In New York, NYMEX crude oil futures were up over $57 per barrel this morning, “…supported by hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump may signal progress on trade talks with China and lower inventories at a U.S. oil hub,” Reuters reports.

New releases on consumer and producer price inflation, retail sales, industrial production and capacity utilization, and the Treasury budget are all on tap in the U.S. this week. The consensus forecasts are that U.S. industrial production contracted 0.4% month-on-month in October while the capacity utilization rate declined to 77.1% (from 77.5% in September).

IHS Markit reports that U.S. business optimism has hit a 3-year low: “The latest IHS Markit Business Outlook survey signals that U.S. private sector firms are less optimistic towards the outlook for business activity over the coming 12 months than in June.

The latest trade figures from the Census Bureau show total U.S. scrap exports (including ferrous scrap, nonferrous scrap, plastic scrap, recovered paper and fiber, and other recycled commodities) during Jan-Sep 2019 totaled 29.2 million metric tons, down 2.5% as compared to the corresponding period in 2018.