Crude oil prices drop substantially on higher inventories

Crude oil prices were down significantly on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Agency released its latest weekly inventories data. July contracts for Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange dropped $2.00 to $69.84 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery fell $1.75 to $67.35 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex July gasoline futures dropped 4.7 cents to $2.1879 per gallon on news of the higher inventories.

The EIA said that crude oil stockpiles jumped by 6.9 million barrels in the week ending June 15. Analysts had expected that inventories would only rise by 100,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories were also up, adding 1.8 million barrels. The gain in gasoline stockpiles was even more of a surprise since refinery utilization dropped by 1.6 percent to 87.6 percent last week, the third week in a row that utilization has declined.

Metals prices were mixed again on the session. Nickel prices fell again, dropping 2.7 percent to $36,500 per tonne. Zinc prices were up slightly, to $3,620 per tonne, while copper added 1.4 percent higher to $7,530 per tonne. Lead added 4.8 percent to $2,515 per tonne. Platinum traded even at $1,290 per troy ounce on strike threats from South Africa. Gold, meanwhile, was 0.7 percent lower, to $656.20 per troy ounce.

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