Commodities prices see declines

The price of crude oil dropped substantially on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported a decline in demand over the past four weeks.

April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $5.27 to $104.15 per barrel close to the end of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for May delivery was down $4.61 to $100.95 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex April gasoline was down 9 cents to $2.57 per gallon while May heating oil was 10 cents lower to $2.96 per gallon and May natural gas fell 26 cents to $9.24 per million British thermal units.

The EIA reported that overall demand for oil products dropped 3.2 percent over the past four weeks while gasoline demand was down by 1 percent from the same period last year.

The EIA also reported that crude oil stockpiles were up by just 200,000 barrels in the week ending 14 March when they had been expected to gain 2.1 million barrels while gasoline inventories were down by 3.5 million barrels, while distillates dropped 2.9 million barrels.

Among precious metals, April gold was down $58.80 to $945.50 per troy ounce in New York, a decline of around 6 percent on the session after gaining 3.3 percent in the past six sessions while May silver, fell $1.49 to $18.47 per troy ounce and April platinum dropped $81 to $1,887 per troy ounce.

Base metals also saw declines.

May copper was 11 cents lower to $3.63 per pound in New York, while three-month copper fell $276 to $7,940 per tonne in London even though London Metal Exchange stockpiles fell by 1,600 tonnes during the session.

Three-month lead was down $145 to $2,800 per tonne in late afternoon trade in London after going as low as $2,720 per tonne earlier while zinc was down $100 to $2,420 per tonne and nickel dropped $600 to $29.500 per tonne.

Grains prices were also down, with May corn on the Chicago Board of Trade dropping 20 cents to $5.27 per bushel.

CBOT May soybeans were 50 cents lower to $12.57 per bushel while May wheat fell 90 cents to $10.74 per bushel on the possibility that farmers will plant more wheat to take advantage of recent price gains.

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