Oil, metals prices lower

Metals prices were down in early afternoon trade in New York on Tuesday. June gold dropped $6.70 to $687.50 per troy ounce, while May sliver fell by 27 cents to $13.78 per troy ounce. Platinum was $20.20 lower to trade at $1,311.50 per troy ounce. Among base metals, copper fell 8 cents to $3.56 per pound.

Meanwhile, profit-taking sent crude oil prices lower on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s weekly US inventories report. Analysts expect that gasoline and distillates stockpiles will have grown slightly last week. However, crude oil inventories are expected to be lower by just over a million barrels. Prices had been up on Monday in response to worries of supply disruptions following the disputed presidential election in Nigeria.

June contracts for Brent crude were down $1.43 to $66.72 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London after having risen earlier in the day. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was down $1.64 to $64.25 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May gasoline added less than a cent to $1.2927 per gallon, while heating oil futures were down fractionally to $1.847 per gallon and natural gas dropped 3.4 cents to $7.528 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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