Crude oil prices fall on session

The rally in crude oil prices finally slowed on Wednesday as West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery dropped 33 cents to $87.28 per barrel at the end of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude dropped 51 cents to $83.04 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London.

Nymex gasoline for November delivery was 3 cents lower to $2.15 per gallon, while December heating oil fell 2 cents to $2.34 per gallon.

January natural gas added 17 cents to $8.45 per million British thermal units.

The declines in crude prices didn’t come until after WTI peaked at a new record of $89 per barrel earlier in the session on the news that the Turkish Parliament had approved a measure to allow Turkish troops to cross the border with Iraq to fight the Kurds there.

The news from Turkey served to minimize the US Energy Information Administration’s weekly inventories report, which showed that crude oil stockpiles were up by 1.8 million barrels in the week ending 12 October, while gasoline inventories grew by 2.8 million barrels and distillates in storage grew by 1 million barrels.

In metals markets, copper dropped 5 cents to $3.60 per pound in afternoon trade in New York on Wednesday, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell $75 to $7,960 per tonne after going as low as $7,910 per tonne earlier in the day after the news that US housing starts dropped 10.2 percent in September, much more of a decline than the 4.2 percent that had been expected to their lowest level in 14 years.

Three-month lead was also lower, down $91 to $3,550 per tonne after inventories in LME warehouses grew by 3,775 tonnes, the second day of stockpile gains in a row.

Among other base metals, zinc was $80 lower to $2,965 per tonne and tin fell $125 to $16,375/$16,400 per tonne but aluminium added $12 to $2,510 per tonne and nickel jumped $100 to $31,800 per tonne.

Among precious metals, December gold added 50 cents to $762.50 per troy ounce in New York, while December silver was up 9 cents to $13.75 per troy ounce and January platinum gained $15.80 to $1,438.20 per troy ounce.

December wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade was 8 cents lower to $8.20 per bushel, while December CBOT corn dropped 2.5 cents to $3.58 per bushel.

CBOT January soybeans were also lower, falling 3.75 cents to $9.93 per bushel on speculation that rain will improve planting rates in northern Brazil.

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