May WTI trades below $46 per barrel

Crude oil prices were substantially lower Monday as the US dollar strengthened and equities markets saw losses on concerns that banks will lose more money to bad loans.

In addition, the International Energy Agency predicted that demand for oil will not recover until next year and BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP; TYO: 8665) forecast that prices for a barrel of crude oil will average $35 in the second quarter, $45 in the third quarter and $58 in the fourth quarter, still far below the highs of July 2008.

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was down $4.45 to $45.88 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while June contracts for Brent crude dropped $3.49 to $49.86 per barrel.

Nymex May gasoline was down 8 cents to $1.41 per gallon during the session while June heating oil fell 9 cents to $1.35 per gallon and June natural gas dropped 20 cents to $3.67 per million British thermal units.

Among base metals, July copper was down 9 cents to $2.11 per pound in New York, while three-month copper was $225 lower to $4,580 per tonne in afternoon trade on the London Metal Exchange, a decline of 4.7 percent, after going as low as $4,565 earlier in the session.

It was copper’s biggest one-day retreat in nearly two months.

Other industrial metals were also lower in London, with lead leading declines as it lost 5.9 percent of its value to $1,463 per tonne while nickel was 5.7 percent lower to $12,090 per tonne and zinc dropped 5 percent to $1,480 per tonne, aluminium traded at $1,445 per tonne and tin was at $12,000 per tonne.

Precious metals were mixed as June gold added $19.60 to $887.50 per troy ounce in New York but May silver was 47 cents lower to $11.79 per troy ounce and July platinum dropped $44.50 to $1,167.10 per troy ounce.

Grains prices dropped on the Chicago Board of Trade, where May corn was down 7 cents to $3.68 per bushel, May wheat fell 17 cents to $5.06 per bushel and May soybeans were 32 cents lower to $10.19 per bushel.

Story link: May WTI trades below $46 per barrel