Metals prices higher; crude oil mixed

Crude oil prices were mixed on Friday after Brent crude dropped back below the $70 per barrel level, an eight-month high it reached on Thursday. In late afternoon trade on the Intercontinental Exchange in London on Friday, July contracts for Brent was 83 cents lower to $69.45 per barrel. That left it still nearly 4 percent higher on the week. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up 26 cents to $65.12 per barrel by early afternoon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The gains in US prices came on announcements this week from three refineries that they were being forced to implement temporary shutdowns due to maintenance and technical problems. June Nymex gasoline traded steady on Friday afternoon at $2.4354 per gallon, up more than 3 percent over the week. The gains took refiner margins to over $30 per barrel.

Some precious metals prices were higher during the day Friday, but remained lower than they were at the beginning of the week. Gold was $3 higher on the day to trade at $660.65/$661.15 per troy ounce, but it still dropped $10 over the week. Platinum prices were up $7 on the day to $1,307 per troy ounce but lost $21 during the week.

Base metals prices also climbed on the day. Three-month copper was up $21 dollars on the session to $7,272 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange after having fallen 4 percent on Thursday. Nickel also saw gains, adding $1,700 to $50,500 per tonne. Metals prices have been lower lately due to worries that demand from China could be hurt by government initiatives to cool down the economy there. China is the worlds biggest consumer of industrial metals.

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