Metals, oil prices mixed on session

Crude oil prices were mixed on Wednesday on news from various parts of the world. Brent crude July contracts were 65 cents lower to $67.48 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London, while West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery added 25 cents to $63.40 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex June gasoline was down nearly 3 cents to $2.2685 per gallon, a decline of 5.6 percent in the week so far.

Iran still insists that it will not suspend its uranium enrichment activities, while there was more trouble in Nigeria and a major pipleine between the Gulf Coast region of the US to New York was closed with no estimate of when it might be reopened. On the other hand, gasoline stockplies are expected to be up when the US Energy Information Administration releases its latest US inventories figures on Thursday.

Base metals prices lower Wednesday, with most prices declining on the session. The exception was lead, which added 2.1 percent to $2,287.5 per tonne.

Copper, however, dropped 0.8 percent to $7,210 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange even though stockpiles in LME warehouses were down by 1,675 tonnes during the day, while the price of zinc was 1.5 percent lower, to $3,595 per tonne.

Precious metals prices were mostly down as well, with August gold down $4.10 to $659.30 by early afternoon in New York after trading in a range in between $658.00 and $660.90. Platinum had dropped 80 cents to $1,264, while silver traded even at $13.22 per troy ounce.

Story link: Metals, oil prices mixed on session