Crude oil prices drop; metals and grains mixed

The price of crude oil declined Thursday reports that showed a slowdown in the US economy and that predicted warmer than normal temperatures for the eastern two-thirds of the United States for at least the first part of the winter.

West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery dropped 18 cents to $91.06 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while February contracts for Brent crude was down 60 cents to $90.88 per barrel.

Nymex January gasoline traded even at $2.33 per gallon while February heating oil was down almost a cent to $2.5895 per gallon.

March natural gas dropped 4 cents to $7.31 per million British thermal units on a less than anticipated decline in inventories last week.

Metals prices were mixed on the session.

Among base metals, March copper added 1 cent to $2.97 per pound in New York while three-month copper in London gained $15 to $6,530 per tonne.

Zinc added $2 to $2,310 per tonne while tin was up $50 to $16,200 per tonne and lead was $76 higher to $2,602 per tonne after going as high as $2,675 per tonne.

Aluminium, on the other hand, fell $21 to $2,407 per tonne while nickel dropped $400 to $26,250..

Meanwhile among precious metals, January platinum dropped $6.30 to $1,517.50 per troy ounce while
March contracts for palladium were down $2.90 to $358.20 per troy ounce and February gold dropped $2.50 to $802.90 per troy ounce.

March silver, on the other hand, added 12 cents to $14.34 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were mixed.

March corn on the Chicago Board of Trade added 2.75 cents to $4.38 per bushel on a report from the US Department of Agriculture that shows demand is up from overseas buyers.

CBOT March soybeans were also higher, gaining 2 cents to $11.79 per bushel, but March wheat dropped 19 cents to $9.54 per bushel.

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