Crude oil, precious metals, gains prices all decline

Crude oil prices were lower on Monday on the possibility that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could decide to increase output when it meets next.

Near the close of floor trade, West Texas Intermediate crude had dropped $1.67 to $94.65 per barrel after going as low as $93.54 per barrel in earlier trade while Brent crude was $1.41 lower to $91.77 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex December gasoline dropped 4 cents to $2.42 per gallon while December heating oil was also 4 cents lower, to $2.58 per gallon.

January natural gas in New York was 4 cents higher to $8.33 per million British thermal units.

The suggestion that production increases could be discussed by OPEC came from Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, but it was unclear how much a decision to raise output would mean amid reports that only Saudi Arabia and Iran have surplus capacity available at the moment.

Precious metals prices dropped as well.

December gold dropped $27 in New York to close at $807.70 per troy ounce, a 3.2 percent decline on the session, while December silver fell 78 cents to $14.76 per troy ounce, a 5 percent decline on the day.

January platinum was $35.20 lower to $1,390.80 per troy ounce, its lowest in just over a month, while December palladium was down $4 to $372.25 per troy ounce.

Copper prices were at their lowest in seven months on Monday after China that it imported 5.6 percent less copper than it had in September.

December copper in New York was down 4 cents to $3.11 per pound, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped $90 to $6,950/$6,960 per tonne.

LME copper inventories were up 3,425 tonnes on the session to a total of 176,200 tonnes.

Grains prices were lower, while meat and livestock futures were mixed.

December wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped 1 cent to $7.61 per bushel while December CBOT corn was down 7.75 cents to $3.79 per bushel and January soybeans fell 10 cents to $10.46 per bushel.

Meanwhile on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, December live cattle were down 0.4 cent to 95.1 cent per pound and December lean hogs dropped 1.35 cents to 52.55 cents per pound while January feeder cattle added 0.95 cent to $1.0897 per pound and February pork bellies were up 0.42 cent to 87.17 cents per pound.

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