On Monday, oil extended previous losses as market focused on ongoing US budget talks and looming political crisis in Italy. Nevertheless, the price of the front-month contract on Brent (ICE) eventually fell only slightly and remained close to 108 USD per barrel (USD/bbl) throughout the whole session. Although the situation in the North Sea market significantly calmed down compared to month ago, the fact that several tankers may leave the region for Asia in weeks to come may tighten the overall balance. This may be the case even though refining margins in Northwest Europe remain poor. Base Metals Despite US-budget-talks headwinds and worse than expected China’s PMI figures for September, both copper and aluminum extend yesterday’s gains today in early trading. Quite curiously, aluminum has performed particularly well and left the most of its peers behind last week although longer-term fundamentals remain negative as well as impact of planned revision of LME warehousing rules is likely to be rather negative news for the price of the metal. Regarding China’s PMI, the official index rose from 51.0 to 51.1 (below expectations) in September. Especially small firms continue to suffer with overcapacity and weak demand. Precious Metals Gold has so far failed to benefit more substantially from debate about US budget and its price even fell on Monday. Physical premiums indicate that Asian demand for gold is somewhat weak and that consumers are reluctant to buy the metal at current prices; in case of China, National Day holiday will weigh on demand this week.