Crude oil prices rise to new highs

Crude oil prices rose to new highs in both New York and London on Thursday as the President of Turkey threatened more attacks on Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, as the United States imposed new sanctions on Iran, and as traders continued to react to Wednesday’s US inventories numbers.

West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery added $3.36 to $90.46 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and hit an all-time higher of $90.60 per barrel, while December contracts for Brent crude were up $3.11 to $87.48 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London and rose to a new high of $87.59 per barrel earlier in the session.

Nymex November gasoline added 9 cents on the session to $2.24 per gallon, while December heating oil gained 5 cents to $2.41 per gallon and December natural gas was up 13 cents to $7.79 per million British thermal units.

Precious metals prices followed oil prices higher.

December gold was $5.40 higher in New York to $771 per troy ounce, while December silver added 32 cents to $13.91 per troy ounce.

January platinum was up $10.70 to $1,453.70 per troy ounce as more South African mines were closed after a week in which five workers have been killed in accidents in mines there, while December palladium gained $6.85 to $369.50 per troy ounce.

Copper prices added 3 cents to $3.49 per pound in New York and gained $80 to $7,765 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange after new data showed that China’s copper imports were up 17 percent in September over August’s numbers and were 46.2 percent higher than last year in the same period.

Among agricultural commodities, sugar prices was gains as high energy prices raised the possibility that more Brazilian crops would be devoted to making ethanol than to sugar for sweeteners and on rumors that India could reduce its sugar output.

March sugar futures on the ICE Futures US exchange were up 0.08 cent to 10.22 cents per pound.

Corn and soybean prices were also higher on the day as the US dollar weakened, producing more demand for US supplies from buyers using other currencies.

December corn on the Chicago Board of Trade added 9.75 cents to $3.6625 per bushel, while January soybeans jumped 18.75 cents to $10.125 per bushel.

Wheat prices, however fell again, with CBOT December wheat dropping 9 cents to $8.02 per bushel.

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