Brent, WTI higher on inventories, weather

Crude oil prices were higher Wednesday as analysts and investors kept an eye on weather forecasts and the US Energy Information Administration said that oil and gasoline inventories declined again last week.

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was 95 cents higher to $73.33 per barrel in mid-afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while September contracts for Brent crude was up $1.67 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London.

Nymex September gasoline was 4 cents higher to $2.10 per gallon, while September heating oil was also up 4 cents to $2.03 per gallon.

October natural gas dropped 9 cents to $7.04 per million British thermal units.

Tropical Storm Erin is expected to make landfall in Texas within a day, bringing with it an expected 2 to 5 inches of rain, causing the National Weather Service to issue flood warnings for the Texas Gulf Coast, home to nearly a third of the oil refineries in the United States, while Tropical Storm Dean is widely expected to strengthen into a hurricane within the next couple of days after which it could enter the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the EIA said that crude oil stockpiles were down by 5.2 million barrels in the week ending August 10 against an expected drop of just 2.3 million barrels, while gasoline inventories were down 1.1 million barrels during the week to 201.9 million barrels and distillates supplies were up 200,000 barrels.

In late-morning trade on the Chicago Board of Trade, December corn rose 3.5 cents to $3.485 per bushel with gains coming as more livestock producers begin to feed their animals corn instead of twice-as-expensive wheat.

In other agricultural commodities, November orange juice dropped 9.45 cents to $1.225 per pound after an analyst said that orange production in Florida could go up by 54 percent next year.

Metals prices dropped again on Wednesday.

The exception was December gold, which traded even at $679.70 per troy ounce in New York.

September silver was down 19 cents to $12.56 per troy ounce, while October platinum fell $5.50 to trade at $1,271.50 per troy ounce.

Base metals were also lower, with December copper was 4 cents lower to $3.32 per pound in New York, while tin dropped 3.2 percent on the London Metal Exchange to $13,725 per tonne, a decline of around 17 percent in the past four sessions.

Also in London, nickel dropped by about three percent on the session and lead and zinc were also trading lower.

Story link: Brent, WTI higher on inventories, weather