Crude oil, precious metals prices see gains

Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday, ending back above the $90 per barrel level after declining in recent days.

January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added $2.16 to $90.02 per barrel at the close of trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange after going as high as $90.55 earlier.

Nymex January gasoline added 4 cents to $2.29 per gallon while January heating oil was up 4.5 cents to $2.52 per gallon and January natural gas gained 8.5 cents to $7.11 per million British thermal units.

Prices were sent higher by news that freezing weather in the US Midwest had forced the closure of several crude oil pipelines in the region, as well as by projections that Wednesday’s US inventories report will show crude stockpiles dropped again last week.

Precious metals prices were higher in New York on Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut US interest rates to 4.25 percent, which was announced after the close of floor trade.

February gold added $3.60 to $817.10 per troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

March silver, meanwhile, added 2 cents to $14.87 per troy ounce while January platinum was up $1 to $1,467.30 per troy ounce.

Base metals prices were mixed on Tuesday.

Copper prices lost less than half a cent to $3.09 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper in London dropped $5 to $6,820 per tonne, or $3.09 per pound on significant gains in London Metal Exchange inventories during the session.

Lead was also lower, falling $20 to $2,520 per tonne, while aluminium dropped $2 to $2,460 per tonne and tin traded even at $16,705 per tonne.

Zinc added $45 to $2,430 per tonne, while nickel prices were $400 higher to $26,700 per tonne.

Grains prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade.

March wheat dropped 19 cents to $9.10 per bushel, while March CBOT corn added 6.25 cents to $4.24 per bushel and January soybeans gained 9.75 cents to $11.35 per bushel.

Earlier, soybeans was up to a 34-year high of $11.37 per bushel and corn was at $4.25 per bushel after the US Department of Agriculture issued reduced inventories estimates for both grains.

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