Metals prices mostly lower; crude oil mixed

Crude oil prices were mixed on Thursday. Brent crude was 10 cents higher to $70.52 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange. Meanwhile, at mid-afternoon in New York, West Texas Intermediate crude was down 21 cents to $68.65 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures were 2 cents higher to $2.25 per gallon, but heating oil had dropped a cent to trade at $2.03 per gallon and natural gas futures were down 3 cents to $7.57 per million British thermal units.

A promised strike of oil and shipping terminal workers in Nigeria began on Wednesday. In addition, Nigerian troops freed hostages and killed 12 militants at an oil facility in the Niger Delta Thursday. Meanwhile, Wednesday’s latest US inventories figures from the Energy Information Administration led the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries to reiterate its position that it will not raise production quotas.

Meanwhile, metals prices were mostly lower. Precious metals had declined by early afternoon in New York. August gold was down $5.80 to $654.20 per troy ounce, while July silver had fallen 16 cents to $13.09 and July platinum dropped $1.80 to trade at $1,299 per troy ounce. Among base metals, nickel was 1.9 percent higher in London to $37,200 per tonne. On the other hand, copper was 0.8 percent lower to $7,460 per tonne on higher London Metal Exchange stockpiles. Copper prices might have fallen even further if not for continuing strike worries in Latin America. Lead was lower as well, dropping 1 percent to $2,485 per tonne after rising to a record high price of $2,540 per tonne earlier in the session.

Story link: Metals prices mostly lower; crude oil mixed