Crude oil, most precious metals prices see declines

After rising to a new record high in overnight trade, crude oil prices were down a bit on Thursday.

At just before the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was 68 cents below Wednesday’s close at $114.25 per barrel after having risen to a new recored at $115.54 per barrel while Brent crude was down 32 cents to $112.34 per barrel.

Nymex May gasoline added 1 cent to $2.95 per gallon but June heating oil was down 2 cents to $3.22 per gallon while June natural gas dropped 8 cents to $10.45 per million British thermal units.

Most precious metals prices declined on Thursday.

June gold was down $5.30 near the end of floor trade in New York to $943 per troy ounce while May silver dropped 3 cents to $18.31 after the US dollar came back from record lows versus the euro.

July platinum, however, was $24.20 higher to $2,061.50 per troy ounce in New York as investors worried that power shortages could again disrupt output in South African mines as they did recently.

Among base metals, July copper dropped 4 cents to $3.91 per pound in New York after having risen to $4.045 per pound, a new record, while three-month copper in London was down $106 to $8,614 per tonne after touching a new high at $8,880 per tonne.

The record highs came on concerns that strikes in Chile could disrupt supply, while later declines were the result of new data which showed that manufacturing in the region of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve contracted more than had been anticipated in April.

Grains prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade, where May corn was up less than a cent to $6.04 per bushel and May soybeans gained 3 cents to $13.48 per bushel but May wheat dropped 12 cents to $9.12 per bushel.

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