Metals prices rise as crude oil sees declines

Metals prices rose on Thursday. Gold was up 1.2 percent to $680.80 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, lead added 1.5 percent to $2,080 per tonne just off of a new record of $2,085 per tonne reached earlier in the session. The gain came on news that shipments from a western Australian port will not resume until at least the middle of August.

Nickel gained 2.7 percent to $49,900 per tonne as inventories dropped to 3,378 tonnes and supply was expected to tighten even more due to a week’s disruption at a Canadian mine as a strike led to the loss of more than one-fifth of current London Metal Exchange stockpiles. Production has begun again at the mine after the Brazilian owners replaced striking workers.

Copper hit its highest level since August, as the price rose 2.8 percent to $8,175 per tonne. The gains came after LME inventories dropped by another 2,200 tonnes to a two-month low. Zinc prices were 3.8 percent higher on the session, to $4,101 per tonne, after a strike began at a US producer.

Crude oil prices, meanwhile, rose early on the news that there had been more kidnappings in Nigeria, in three separate attacks on oil facilities there. Up to twenty workers were taken initially, but prices began to fall again after eight of the twenty were released without having suffered any harm. The new attacks came on top of supply disruption fears after the recent - and disputed - presidential elections there. Today’s violence was said by those claiming responsibility for them that they were a warning to Shell (LSE: RDSA, RDSB; NYSE: RDS.A, RDS.B) which is getting ready to open one of its Nigerian oil fields, which has been shut down for over a year due to the ongoing attacks in Nigeria.

Brent crude for June delivery was up to $66.98 per barrel at one point during the session but later dropped 50 cents below Wednesday’s close to $65.75 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London. June contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude fell 73 cents to $62.95 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile, after a new report showing that US inventories of natural gas grew by 87 billion cubic feet last week, more than had been expected, Nymex June Henry Hub dropped 50 cents to $7.68 per million British thermal units.

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