Crude prices in limited gains

Crude oil prices rose Thursday but gains were limited by a report that demand for oil and oil products was down by 2.4 percent in the past four weeks.

September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up $1.14 to $125.58 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude was last reported up 63 cents to $125.92 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

The US Energy Information Administration said natural gas inventories gained 84 billion cubic feet to almost 84 billion cubic feet last week, sending the price for September contracts on Nymex down 61 cents to $9.24 per million British thermal units, while Nymex September heating oil futures were up 2 cents to $3.60 per gallon but August gasoline was down 11 cents to $3.03 per gallon.

The price of copper fell Thursday after the US dollar strengthened versus the euro and the pound and on reports that China imported 20 percent less copper in June than it did in May as its construction projects for the Summer Olympics drew to completion.

September copper dropped 8 cents to $3.58 per pound and was as low as $3.55 per pound earlier in the session in New York, while three-month copper was down $50 to $8,030 per tonne, in London as inventories on the London Metal Exchange rose again.

Among precious metals, August gold traded 10 cents lower to $922.70 per troy ounce at last report, while September silver was down 16 cents to $17.30 per troy ounce and October platinum had dropped $47 to $1,713.80 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were mixed.

While December corn on the Chicago Board of Trade added a cent to $5.92 per bushel and CBOT September wheat gained 4 cents to $7.87 per bushel, November soybeans dropped 11 cents to $13.73 per bushel.

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