Crude oil gains; metals and grains prices mixed

The price of crude oil was higher on Friday on the belief that with most of the US inventories buildup on the West Coast, US inventories aren’t as abundant as Thursday’s Energy Information Administration made them seem

December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were $1.17 higher to $94.60 per barrel near the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while earlier in the session January WTI contracts added $1.48 to $93.55 per barrel.

Nymex December gasoline was up 4 cents to $2.38 per gallon while January heating oil gained 3 cents to $2.60 per gallon and January natural gas jumped 26 cents to $8.34 per million British thermal units.

However, at-the-pump prices for gasoline in the US dropped 0.3 cent to $3.109 per gallon after several days of increases that were less than they had been recently, just as up to 31.2 million travelers prepare to travel for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.

Precious metals prices were mixed on Friday after gold and palladium declined but silver and platinum saw gains.

January platinum added $27.80 to $1,453.20 per troy ounce in New York on a reduced output forecast for the year from one miner, while December silver was up 2 cents to $14.50 per troy ounce.

Meanwhile, December gold was down 60 cents to $786.70 per troy ounce, while December palladium dropped $3.45 to $367.50 per troy ounce in early trade.

Among base metals, March copper gained 9 cents to $3.21 per pound in New York.

Grains prices were mixed in afternoon trade.

March corn on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 4.75 cents to $3.96 per bushel but January CBOT soybeans were down 1 cent to $10.77 per bushel and December wheat fell 16 cents to $7.49 per bushel.

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