Declines for oil, metals prices

Oil prices dropped on Tuesday. Brent crude for July delivery was $1.06 lower to $70.30 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London. Meanwhile, August contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.20 to $67.98 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The declines came a day before new US inventories data is due, with most analysts expecting that gasoline in storage will be up by a bit more than a million barrels since last week.

Prices were also helped lower by the end a strike in Nigeria over the weekend. On the other hand, earlier reports that a Shell (LSE: RDSA, RDSB; NYSE: RDS.A, RDS.B) export terminal would open next month after more than a year offline following an attack my militants were denied by a representative of the company. He said that repairs remain to be made before the terminal can resume service.

Metals prices were also lower on the session. Among base metals, copper dropped 1.6 percent to $7,362.5 per tonne. Zinc dropped 3.5 percent to $3,405 per tonne, while nickel fell 3.7 percent to $37,650 per tonne. Meanwhile, lead hit a new record high at $2,730 per tonne during the session but ended up closing 4.9 percent lower at $2,580 per tonne. Precious metals saw declines as well. Gold was down 1.1 percent to $644.20 per troy ounce, while platinum fell 2.1 percent to $1,265 per troy ounce.

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