Crude closes lower after gains on inventories

Crude oil prices were up slightly in afternoon trade in New York on some declines in US inventories, but by the close of floor trade in New York, prices had dropped slightly below Tuesday’s close.

January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude fell 17 cents to $46.79 per barrel while at last report Brent crude for January delivery was down 9 cents to $45.35 per barrel.

US crude oil stockpiles dropped 400,000 barrels in the week ending 28 November instead of rising by the expected 2 million barrels, while gasoline inventories dropped 1.6 million barrels last week, while distillates in storage were down by 1.7 million barrels.

Nymex January gasoline futures fell a cent to $1.05 per gallon while heating oil traded about even at to $1.58 per gallon and natural gas dropped 5 cents to $6.35 per million British thermal units.

At-the-pump prices for regular unleaded gasoline in the United States continued to drop, falling just less than a cent overnight to $1.803 per gallon, more than $2.30 lower than July’s peak.

The price of copper fell Wednesday on continuing worries that demand will suffer as the global economy worsens after the world’s biggest publicly traded copper producer, Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), suspended its dividend and said it will cut output over the next two years.

March copper dropped 5 cents to $1.55 per pound in New York while three-month copper was down $135 to $3,420 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Among precious metals, meanwhile, February gold was down $12.80 to $770.50 per troy ounce in New York as the US dollar gained on the euro, while March silver fell 3 cents to $9.59 per troy ounce and January platinum dropped $2.20 to $805.10 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade as January soybeans added 3 cents to $8.30 per bushel but December corn dropped less than half a cent to $3.32 per bushel and December wheat was down 9 cents to $5 per bushel.

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