Crude prices fall on inventories

Crude oil prices fell on Thursday when the weekly Energy Information Administration US inventories report showed that while distillates inventories declined more than expected in the week ending 9 November, crude oil and gasoline stockpiles grew when they had been expected to decrease over the week.

Just before the close of floor trade, West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery had dropped 54 cents to $93.55 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while December contracts for Brent crude, which expired at the close of trade Thursday, fell 51 cents to $90.84 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex December gasoline was 5 cents lower to $2.32 per gallon while January heating oil fell 2 cents to $2.56 per gallon and January natural gas dropped 18 cents to $8.05 per million British thermal units.

Crude oil stockpiles were up 2.8 million barrels during the week while gasoline inventories were up by 700,000 barrels on an anticipated 100,000-barrel decline but distillates in storage fell by 2 million barrels to 133.4 million barrels.

Precious metals prices fell substantially on Thursday after the US dollar showed gains in relation to the euro.

December gold was $27.40 lower at $787.30 per troy ounce and went as low as $784 per troy ounce earlier in the session while silver dropped 58 cents to $14.49 per troy ounce.

January platinum was down $20.70 to $1,425.40 per troy ounce and December palladium fell $2.85 to $370.95 per troy ounce.

Base metals prices were lower on profit-taking Thursday after an earthquake that hit Chile’s northern mining region sent prices soaring on Wednesday.

December copper in New York dropped more than 6 percent as it fell 21 cents to $3.12 per pound at the close of trade on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell $215 to $6,920 per tonne.

Among other industrial metals, aluminium was down $39 to $2,570 per tonne and zinc was $75 lower to $$2,590 per tonne and nickel dropped $1,600 to $31,700 per tonne after going as low as $31,600 earlier in the day.

Tin traded around $17,375/$17,400 per tonne at the close of trade in London, while lead ended the session trading in a range around $3,490/$3,500 per tonne.

Grains prices were mixed at last report, with December wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade adding 13 cents to $7.65 per bushel but January CBOT soybeans down 0.75 cent to $10.79 per bushel and March corn falling 8.25 cents to $3.91 per bushel.

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