Commodities: Gold continues to shine as geopolitical tensions simmer

North Korea still dominated much of the moves on Tuesday, though not to the extent that it did during the previous session, with safe haven gold up only 0.32% to $1,338/oz. and the December contract up 1.01% to $1,344/oz..

"What the recent (North Korea) episodes have shown is that you should not really try to follow these things as they tend to fade quickly," said ING's Petr Krpata.

The precious metal retreated after hitting a one-year high as investors took the opportunity to book profits, but prices were still underpinned by continued concerns over North Korea's nuclear tests.

Robin Bhar at Societe Generale explained, "Gold shot up quite a bit in the past few days so if you bought it then you've made a nice profit and you could take some off the table."

Other precious metals saw silver down 0.13% to $17.85/oz., platinum 0.46% lower to $1,003/oz. and palladium lower to $965/oz. Palladium recently hit it's highest level since February at $1,001.

Base metals saw copper rally overnight to hit a high of $6,949/tonne, helped in part by a positive Caixin services PMI figure of 52.7, showing continued confidence in the worlds biggest copper user, China.

Energy markets rallied on Tuesday as refineries on the US Gulf Coast that were shut due to Hurricane Harvey gradually restarted.

Eight US oil refineries with 2.1m barrels per day of refining capacity, or 11.4% of the US total, were shut as of Monday afternoon, the Department of Energy said.

At its peak, the hurricane knocked out almost a quarter of all American refining capacity.

WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude for December delivery was up 2.26% to $49.51/barrel while benchmark brent crude for January was up just under 2% to $53.42.

Signals that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could extend its output limits beyond the first quarter of 2018 also boosted prices, as did a weak US dollar.

As if one hurricane wasn't bad enough to deal with, the southern US coast is getting prepared for another as Hurricane Irma makes it's way to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

"Irma becomes an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane," the NHC (National Hurricane Centre) said on Tuesday, adding that it could strengthen. "Preparations should be rushed to completion in the hurricane warning area." Category 5 is the highest NHC designation.

Hurricane Irma also played it's part on cotton prices, with the December contract trading 4.12% higher on the day to $0.7486/lb, it's strongest level since May this year.

"Areas of the southeastern cotton growing regions of US area are likely to get some rain, while Florida could also see some bad weather due to Irma," said Louis Rose, co-founder and director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity Group.

In other agriculturals, soybeans for November delivery were up 1.52% to $9.65/bushel and March Corn was 0.76% higher to $3.71.