Crude drops over $3 per barrel on session

The price of crude oil dropped substantially Tuesday ahead of a meeting of the OPEC nations in Vienna and the weekly US oil inventories report from the Energy Information Administration, both due Wednesday.

April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were trading down $3.25 to $99.20 per barrel not long before the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for April delivery dropped $3.23 to $97.25 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex April gasoline was down 15 cents to $2.52 per gallon while April heating oil dropped 4 cents to $2.80 per gallon and April natural gas was even at $9.35 per million British thermal units.

May copper was 11 cents lower to $3.82 per pound in New York, while three-month copper dropped $175 to $8,400 per tonne, or $3.81 per pound, in London.

The price declines came on worries that recent higher prices could hurt demand in China.

Meanwhile among precious metals, April platinum added $25.40 to $2,267 per troy ounce in New York but April gold dropped $17.70 to $966.50 per troy ounce and May silver fell 34 cents to $19.84 per troy ounce.

May soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped 47.5 cents to $15.12 per bushel on the possibility that China could sell its vegetable-oil stockpiles in an attempt to slow food inflation there.

CBOT May wheat was also lower, dropping 39 cents to $10.63 per bushel while May corn was down 11.5 cents to $5.55 per bushel.

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