Crude prices drop ahead of inventories numbers

Crude oil prices were lower on Tuesday ahead of US inventories reports due tomorrow that are widely expected to show that refinery utilization will have grown to its highest level in ten months.

September contracts for Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange fell $1.68 to $75.18 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery dropped $1.49 to $73.40 per barrel in early afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Nymex August gasoline was 2 cents lower to $2.09 per gallon, while September heating oil was also down 2 cents to $2.06 per gallon and September natural gas fell 18 cents to 5.94 per million British thermal units.

One analyst survey has predicted that crude oil inventories will be down and gasoline stockpiles higher for the week ending July 20, while another report expects refinery utilization to have grown to nearly 92 percent - a figure that could be helped by news that three companies restarted refinery units in Texas last week.

Metals prices were mixed on the session.

Among precious metals, August gold was $3.30 higher to $684.80 per troy ounce in New Yorkas the dollar once again dropped to new record lows against both the euro and the pound.

September silver added 11 cents to $13.44 per troy ounce after trading as high as $13.58 earlier in the session, but October platinum dropped $8.30 in New York to trade at $1,333.60 per troy ounce.

Base metals prices were mixed as well, with zinc 0.9 percent higher to $3,725 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange as inventories in LME warehouses dropped by 650 tonnes to barely two days worth of global consumption.

On the other hand, copper dropped 0.7 percent to $7,965 per tonne in London while in New York it dropped 4 cents to $3.62 per pound.

Lead prices were also 0.7 percent lower in London, trading at $3,365 per tonne, while nickel fell 3.6 percent to $32,200 per tonne as LME inventories added 804 tonnes to inventories.

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