Crude oil, base metals prices see gains on session

Crude oil prices ended higher in New York Tuesday on a day when prices bounced around a bit on more bad economic news and US inventories reports, due Wednesday, are expected to show that crude oil stockpiles grew last week but that gasoline inventories were down.

April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added $1.50 to close at $41.65 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report Brent crude was up $1.53 to $43.74 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex April gasoline and heating oil prices were up around 3 cents each, to $1.32 per gallon and $1.18 per gallon respectively,

Copper prices were higher Tuesday after inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell again, as the dollar remained relatively weak, and on speculation that the next few months could see China buy up as much as a quarter of copper inventories in LME-monitored warehouses.

May copper was up 9 cents to $1.60 per pound in New York, while in afternoon trade in London three-month copper gained $115 to $3,500 per tonne after LME-monitored warehouses dropped 5,800 tonnes of the metal used in construction and manufacturing.

Aluminium added $5 to $1,325 per tonne even though inventories jumped by 17,200 tones, adding to a record stockpiles of over 3.2 million tonnes while lead was up $27 to $1,055 per tonne, zinc added $33.75 to $1,134.75 per tonne and nickel gained $300 to $9,800 per tonne.

Tin dropped $35 to $10,640 per tonne.

Precious metals prices were lower as April gold fell $26.40 to $913.60 per troy ounce, May silver was down 36 cents to $12.72 per troy ounce and April platinum dropped $39.60 to $1,038.60 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade.

CBOT March soybeans added 14 cents to $8.63 per bushel while March corn remained unchanged at $3.43 per bushel but March wheat dropped 4 cents to $4.90 per bushel.

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