Oil, metals prices fall; grains see gains

The price of crude oil was lower on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly US inventories data, which showed that crude oil and distillates stockpiles were up last week and while gasoline stockpiles were down, they didn’t fall by as much as had been anticipated.

Before the Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates at 2 percent for the time being, August contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude was down $3.30 to $133.70 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while after the decision crude oil remained $2.19 lower to $134.81 per barrel.

Brent crude for August delivery dropped $3.02 to $133.44 per barrel.

US supplies of crude oil were up by 800,000 barrels in the week ending 20 June against an expected decline of 1.7 million barrels, while gasoline inventories were only down by 100,000 barrels and distillates stockpiles jumped by 2.8 million barrels, much more than had been expected.

Nymex July gasoline futures dropped 8 cents to $3.37 per gallon.

Metals prices fell, following oil lower.

August gold was down $9.20 to $882..40 per troy ounce, while September silver was 15 cents lower to $16.59 and October platinum dropped $22.50 to $2,009.

September copper was also lower, falling 1 cent to $3.77 per pound in New York while three-month copper dropped $100 to $8,300 per tonne in London despite a decline of 525 tonnes in London Metal Exchange stockpiles.

Grains prices were higher, with July wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade up 31 cents to $9.01 per bushel while CBOT July corn added 17 cents to $7.30 per bushel and July soybeans gained 36 cents to $15.37 per bushel.

Prices for corn and soybeans were up on worries that more rain in the US Midwest overnight and more forecast for the next few days will cause more damage to crops.

Several inches of new rain fell Tuesday night in some growing regains of the Midwest.

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