Crude oil, wheat prices in record high territory

The price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil contracts for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange remained in record territory Wednesday, hitting $80 per barrel for the first time during the session and trading $1.62 higher at 2:30 pm to $79.85 per barrel.

At last report, Nymex October gasoline was up 3 cents to $2.01 per gallon, while October heating oil was 4 cents higher to $2.22 per gallon and October natural gas had added 50 cents to $6.43 per million British thermal units.

The gains came after the US Energy Information Administration reported that crude oil stockpiles were 7.1 million barrels lower in the week ending September 9, three times the drop that had been expected to a total of 322.6 million barrels in storage.

Gasoline inventories were also lower, by 700,000 barrels to 190.4 million barrels, while distillates stockpiles were 1.8 million barrels higher during the week to 134 million barrels.

Wheat prices also were in record territory as December contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade exceeded $9 per bushel for the first time ever, going as high as $9.07 per bushel and trading 11.5 cents higher at $9.02 per bushel in early afternoon trade.

The increase in wheat prices came after the US Department of Agriculture predicted that US inventories would be at 33-year lows of around 362 million bushels by the end of the crop year.

The price of soybeans were as high as $9.45 per bushel and were up 18.5 cents to $9.39 per bushel in afternoon trade after the USDA predicted that hot weather would drop production to 2.6 billion bushels due to damage by hot weather.

Corn prices were higher on the possibility that livestock producers will look to corn to feed their animals rather than the more expensive wheat, rising 15.25 cents to $3.56 per bushel in afternoon trade.

Metals prices were mixed.

December copper dropped 3 cents to $3.36 per pound in New York and London Metal Exchange three-month copper fell $55 to $7,420 per tonne after a scheduled strike in Peru was cancelled and workers and management resumed wage talks and an earthquake in Indonesia was reported not to have disrupted mining activities there.

Among precious metals, December gold dropped 40 cents to $720.70 per troy ounce in New York on the expectation that the Federal Reserve will cut US interest rates when it meets next week, further weakening the dollar.

December silver was also lower, falling 4 cents to $12.79 per troy ounce, but October platinum added $2.10 to $1,304.70 per troy ounce.

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