Crude oil, wheat futures see significant gains

Crude oil prices rose significantly on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported that inventories of crude oil were 700,000 barrels lower last week, against an expected rise of 100,000 barrels.

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery added $4.48 to $94.50 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while January contracts for Brent crude were up $3.20 to $93.19 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex January gasoline and heating oil were each 12 cents higher to $2.42 per gallon and $2.65 per gallon respectively, while January natural gas gained 33 cents to $7.41 per million British thermal units.

Distillates stockpiles dropped by 800,000 barrels but gasoline inventories were up by 1.6 million barrels.

Wheat prices were up by their daily limit in both Chicago and Kansas City on worries that global demand will cut US inventories before the next harvest, coming in June as a new US Department of Agriculture estimate was down 10 percent from last month’s prediction.

March and May wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade each added 30 cents, to $9.40 per bushel and $9.43 per bushel respectively, and July CBOT wheat was up 22 cents to $8.28 per bushel, while March futures on the Kansas City Board of Trade were also up 30 cents, to $9.81 per bushel, a record for Kansas City contracts.

March CBOT corn was also higher, adding 9 cents to $4.33 per bushel, while January CBOT soybeans gained 16 cents to $11.52 per bushel.

Cattle futures dropped on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on announced cutbacks that are meant to hold losses down.

Two Kansas plants said they are cutting hours, which will result in 10,000 to 15,000 fewer cattle being slaughtered each week.

February live cattle dropped 0.45 cent to 96.8 cents per pound, while January feeder cattle futures were down 0.78 cent to $1.05 per pound.

Precious metals prices were mixed Wednesday in New York trade.

February gold was $1.90 higher to $819 per troy ounce whileJanuary platinum added $12.50 to $1,479.80 per troy ounce, but March silver dropped 4 cents to $14.83 per troy ounce.

Prices for base metals were mixed again on Wednesday.

March copper dropped 5 cents to $3.04 per pound in New York, while in London three-month copper dropped $99 to $6,720 per tonne in London after going as low as $6,570 per tonne earlier in the session.

Aluminium was down $3 to $2,457 per tonne and nickel dropped $400 to $26,300 per tonne.

Tin traded even at $16,705 per tonne, while zinc added $30 to $2,460 per tonne and lead was up $50 to $2,570 per tonne.

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