Commodities prices lower to end week

Crude oil prices declined Friday, but they were still above $50 per barrel on the session.

May contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were $1.99 lower to $52.35 per barrel around the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude dropped $1.83 to $51.63 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex April gasoline futures were up 4 cents to $1.53 per gallon but May heating oil was down 4 cents to $1.45 per gallon and May natural gas dropped 29 cents to $3.74 per million British thermal units.

At-the-pump prices for gasoline in the United States was up 1.7 cents to $2.026 per gallon overnight, but it remains nearly $1.25 lower than at the same time last year.

Copper prices were lower Friday on declines in demand as the US dollar strengthened and equities markets saw declines.

May copper was down 2 cents to $1.84 per pound in New York, while three-month copper was down $52.25 to $4,032.75 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Despite today’s price declines, Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK; NYSE: DB) raised its price targets on most base metals for this year on the assumption that the economy will begin to recover this year, predicting that the price of copper will average $2,388 per tonne this year.

Precious metals prices were also lower as June gold fell $16.90 to $925.30 per troy ounce in New York while May silver was down 36 cents to $13.26 per troy ounce and July platinum dropped $17.30 to $1,137.70 per troy ounce.

May corn was 3 cents lower to $3.87 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade while CBOT May wheat fell 7 cents to $5.07 per bushel and May soybeans dropped 25 cents to $9.18 per bushel, all in afternoon trade.

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