Crude oil, precious metals prices decline

Crude oil prices were lower on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported that while crude oil inventories were lower last week, stockpiles of gasoline and inventories grew while refinery utilization remained the same at 89.4 percent of capacity.

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery ended the session at $87.49 per barrel, a decline of 83 cents over Tuesday’s close, while January contracts for Brent crude fell $1.07 to $88.46 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex January gasoline was down 3 cents to $2.22 per gallon while January heating oil fell 2 cents to $2.49 per gallon but January natural gas was 3 cents higher to $7.19 per million British thermal units.

While crude oil inventories dropped by 8 million barrels overall in the week ending 30 November, gasoline inventories were up by 4 million barrels in the week, 600,000 barrels higher than they were last year at the same time, while distillates in storage were up 1.4 million barrels to a total of 132.3 million barrels.

Elsewhere, OPEC announced that it will hold official production levels steady for the time being, but there are signs that the cartel is already producing above the official quotas.

Metals prices were mixed on Wednesday as precious metals declined in New York but base metals were mixed in London.

February gold on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was $3.80 lower to $803.80 per troy ounce while March silver fell 1 cent to $14.46 per troy ounce and January platinum dropped $4 to $1,468.30 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, copper added 2 cents to $3.04 per pound in New York while three-month copper in London added $5 to $6,695 per tonne.

Nickel was also higher, adding $205 to $$25,900 per tonne, but aluminium which dropped $2 to $2,465 per tonne while zinc dropped $19 to $2,406 per tonne, lead fell $55 to $2,830 per tonne and tin was down $150 to $16,500 per tonne.

Among agricultural commodities, grains prices were mixed.

January soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade were 8 cents higher to $11 per bushel while March CBOT corn held steady at $4.11 per bushel and December wheat dropped 11 cents to $8.63 per bushel and March wheat fell 9 cents to $8.85 per bushel.

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