Oil, metals, grains all advance on session

Oil prices were significantly higher Thursday as the US dollar fell and ahead of expiration of April contracts at the end of the trading day on Friday.

April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added $3.47 to $51.61 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while May contracts were up $3.14 to $52.04 per barrel and Thursday’s floor session ended, while Brent crude added $2.97 to $50.63 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

In afternoon trade, Nymex April gasoline added 7 cents to $1.44 per gallon while May heating oil was up 9 cents to $1.36 per gallon and May natural gas gained 48 cents to $4.24 per million British thermal units after the US Energy Information Administration said that natural gas in storage was down by 30 billion cubic feet last week.

April gold added $69.70 to $958.80 per troy ounce in New York as investors worried about inflation, while May silver added $1.59 to $13.61 per troy ounce, its biggest one-day gain since the end of 1979, while April platinum gained $79.40 to $1,122.40 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, copper added 9 cents to $1.81 per pound in New York while three-month copper gained $214 to $3,970 per tonne after going as high as $4,020 per tonne earlier in the day as copper inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses were lower again on the session.

Three-month contracts for aluminium were up $86 to $1,465 per tonne as an analyst report said that more production cuts are needed in order to stop the string of new records in the amount of the metal in storage.

Lead, nickel, zinc and tin were all also higher on the session in London.

May corn added 8 cents to $3.96 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade while CBOT May wheat and May soybeans each gained 25 cents, to $5.55 per bushel and $9.40 per bushel respectively.

Story link: Oil, metals, grains all advance on session