Hurricane Ike affects oil, grains prices

October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped to $99.99 per barrel briefly on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday, the first time it has been below $100 per barrel since 2 April, before returning to slight gains on the session in afternoon trade as Hurricane Ike approached landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast, shuttering most of the oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and halting up to a fourth of US refining capacity.

October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude closed up 21 cents to $101.08 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for October delivery was down 23 cents to $97.41 per barrel at last report.

Nymex October gasoline futures were up a cent and a half to $2.76 per gallon while October heating oil added 1 cent to $2.92 per gallon and October natural gas gained 13 cents to $7.38 per million British thermal units.

Precious metals prices gained Friday on a weaker US dollar.

December gold added $19 to $764.50 per troy ounce while December silver was up 24 cents to $10.80 per troy ounce and October platinum jumped $58.30 to $1,210.50 per troy ounce, while in mid-morning trade, palladium had added $4.50 to $230.20 per troy ounce.

Prices for base metals were also up on the session.

December copper added 7 cents to $3.19 per pound in New York while three-month copper was up $192 to $7,122 per tonne in London even as London Metal Exchange stockpiles grew to above 203,000 tonnes on the session.

Zinc added $11 to $1,885 per tonne while aluminium was up $35 to $2,655 per tonne, lead was $90 higher to $1,940 per tonne, tin jumped $700 to $19.450 per tonne and nickel gained $750 to $19,250 per tonne.

Corn and soybeans prices were higher on the Chicago Board of Trade after the US Department of Agriculture said that dry weather in August in US growing regions hurt crop yields and ahead of possible flooding from Hurricane Ike as it comes ashore and spreads across the US Midwest.

The storms from the remnants of Ike could cause further crop losses and are likely to delay harvests.

CBOT November soybeans added 26 cents to $12.02 per bushel and December corn gained 30 cents to $5.63 per bushel, but December wheat dropped 7 cents to $7.19 per bushel.

Story link: Hurricane Ike affects oil, grains prices