Oil, metals prices in substantial declines

The price of crude oil feel substantially in New York trade Monday, mostly on worries about demand erosion after last week’s employment report from the US Labor Department and on declines in equities markets although concerns that inventories will continue to rise also hurt prices.

West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was down $3.24 to $37.59 per barrel at the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude fell 95 cents to $43.47 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

In afternoon trade in New York, Nymex February gasoline futures were down 4 cents to $1.08 per gallon while February heating oil was down a cent to $1.47 per gallon but March natural gas added 5 cents to $5.54 per million British thermal units.

Precious metals prices were lower Monday after the US dollar strengthened in relation to the euro ahead of a meeting of the European Central Bank later this week, when the Bank the widely expected to cut interest rates again.

February gold was down $34.50 to $820.50 per troy ounce in New York, its lowest level in almost a month, while March silver dropped 57 cents to $10.75 per troy ounce and April platinum fell $31.60 to $971.50 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, March copper was down 7 cents to $1.49 per pound in New York trade while three-month copper dropped $175 to $3,225 per tonne in London.

The price of copper dropped on investor concerns that demand could slip further, while there was news that China will not buy more copper as they had said they would last week and London Metal Exchange inventories were at 369,000 tonnes, having added 8.7 percent to stockpiles just since the beginning of the year.

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