Oil prices in slight climb

After surging to $95.17 per barrel in electronic trading overnight when four pipeline that carries crude oil from Canada to the United States were closed after one of them exploded Wednesday afternoon, January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added 39 cents to $91.01 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday.

Prices fell from the early spike after three of the pipelines reopened and it was reported that the fourth could be open again within two or three days.

Nymex January natural gas futures dropped 3.4 cents to $7.45 per million British thermal units after the US Energy Information Administration reported that inventories were down by 12 billion cubic feet last week, less of a decline than had been anticipated.

December gasoline on Nymex fell 1 cent to $2.26 per gallon, while January heating oil traded even at $2.58 per gallon.

Precious metals prices were mixed in New York on Thursday.

February gold dropped $5 to $802.30 per troy ounce on a stronger dollar and a report that the US dollar grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent, the best quarterly growth in four years.

March silver was 9 cents lower to $14.45 per troy ounce.

On the other hand, January platinum added $1.20 to $1,439.50 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, March copper added 6 cents to $3.09 per pound in New York, helped by the report on US economic growth, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange added $165 to $6,880 per tonne.

Gains in New York copper prices were held back, however, by a separate report showing that not as many new homes were purchased in the United States in October as had been expected.

Grains prices were higher on the Chicago Board of Trade.

December corn added 1 cent to $3.88 per bushel while January soybeans were up 3.75 cents to $11 per bushel and March wheat gained 7.25 cents to $8.89 per bushel.

Story link: Oil prices in slight climb