US crude oil stockpiles higher; gasoline and distillates inventories decline

Crude oil prices were higher on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly inventories report. Brent crude was up 73 cents to $70.90 per barrel in the Intercontinental exchange, while August contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude gained $1.10 to $68.87 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. July Nymex gasoline were up around 2 cents to $2.2672 per gallon., while July heating oil added 4 cents to $2.035 per gallon.

The EIA said that gasoline inventories fell by 700,000 barrels in the week ending June 22. Most analysts had expected that stockpiles would rise by 1.1 million barrels during the week. Distillate stockpiles also dropped, by 2.3 million barrels over the week, while crude oil inventories jumped by 1.6 million barrels.

Metals prices were mixed, with precious metals mostly lower but base metals seeing gains. August gold was 50 cents lower in New York to $644.80 per troy ounce after bigger declines on Monday and Tuesday. July silver dropped 7 cents to $12.21 per troy ounce. September palladium was also lower, falling $3.15 to $367.85 per troy ounce. July platinum, however, added $7.20 to $1,275.50 per troy ounce.

Base metals were higher in London. Copper added 0.1 percent to $7,375 per tonne on strikes and threats of even more strikes in Latin America and on new figures showing that consumption was higher than production in the first quarter of 2007. Nickel gained 0.2 percent to $37,600 per tonne, while lead added 1 percent to $2,610 per tonne.

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