WTI trades above $47 per barrel

The price of crude oil was higher in New York on Monday as investors bet that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies will cut production quotas when it meets this weekend in Vienna and amid tensions after a confrontation between Chinese chips and a US surveillance ship in international waters off China Sunday.

April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added $1.55 to $47.07 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but at last report Brent crude was down 84 cents to $44.01 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex April gasoline futures added 1 cent to $1.34 per gallon in afternoon trade, but April heating oil dropped a cent to $1.22 per gallon and April natural gas was 8 cents lower to $3.87 per million British thermal units.

Most metals prices fell on the session.

Among precious metals, April gold fell $24,70 to $918 per troy ounce while May silver was 39 cents lower to $12.94 per troy ounce and April platinum dropped $15 to $1,064.10 per troy ounce.

May copper was down 5 cents to $1.64 per pound in New York while three-month copper dropped $106 to $3,614 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange on new demand worries.

Aluminium dropped $10 to $1,300 per tonne on the session as stockpiles rose again, while tin traded at $11,000 per tonne, zinc was at $1,223 per tonne and nickel traded at $9,650 per tonne as all three metals saw prices drop during the session.

Lead bucked trends as it added $23 to $1,243 per tonne on high demand.

Grains prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade as March soybeans added 2 cents to $8.81 per bushel and March corn gained 4 cents to $3.57 per bushel but March contracts for wheat dropped 3 cents to $5.13 per bushel.

Story link: WTI trades above $47 per barrel