Shell profits double to $7.2bn

Commodities: today’s 10 top stories

• Spiralling oil prices and strong demand for gas after the Fukushima nuclear disaster helped Shell double its profits between July and September
• Copper rose above the $8,000 level for the first time in five weeks
• ExxonMobil suffered a drop in production in the third quarter but high commodity prices helped it report a 41% rise in earnings
• Bunge, one of the world’s largest traders of agricultural commodities, blamed volatile markets for a sharp drop in profitability in the quarter to the end of September
• Vale, the world’s biggest miner of iron ore, took the market by surprise by reporting a third-quarter net profit of $4.94 billion, down 18% from last year
• A US federal appeals court has reversed the dismissal of genocide and war crime charges against Rio Tinto by landowners in Papua New Guinea.
• Mexico's state oil company Pemex on Thursday blamed exchange rate losses and taxes for a third-quarter loss of 81 billion Mexican pesos
• Santos  has sold its 40% interest in the undeveloped Evans Shoal permit to a global oil company for up to $350 million
• Canada’s Cenovus Energy has reported a 73% rise in net earnings for the third quarter to $513 million
• Teck Resources Limited announces 33% dividend increase