Oil, grains, metals all see price gains

The price of crude oil rose Tuesday despite US inventories that remain high and are expected to have risen even more last week ahead of tomorrow’s weekly stockpiles report from the US Energy Information Administration.

Prices for West Texas Intermediate crude rose above $60 per barrel for a time Tuesday before falling back to a gain of 27 cents to $58.77 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude added 63 cents to $58.11 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

In afternoon trade, meanwhile, Nymex June gasoline futures fell a cent to $1.67 per gallon and June heating oil was down 2 cents to $1.50 per gallon but June natural gas added 17 cents to $4.47 per million British thermal units.

Precious metals prices rose on declines in the dollar and expectations that demand, especially for gold, will jump as more investors worry that a recovering economy will mean higher inflation.

June gold was up $10.40 to $923.90 per troy ounce in New York while July silver added 31 cents to $14.22 per troy ounce and July platinum gained $11.40 to $1,132.10.

Base metals prices were up in London while July copper traded about even in New York at $2.09 per pound during the day.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange added around $35 to trade in a range between $4,595/$5,600 per tonne as LME inventories of the metal used in manufacturing and construction fell by 6,150 tonnes.

Zinc added $3 to $1,545 per tonne while aluminium was up $8 to $1,547 per tonne, lead was $49 higher to $1,475 per tonne, nickel added $120 to $13,045 per tonne and tin gained $125 to $14,025 per tonne.

Grains prices were higher on the Chicago Board of Trade.

May wheat added 2 cents to $5.82 per bushel while May corn was up 6 cents to $4.19 per bushel.

CBOT May soybeans were up 7 cents to $11.37 per bushel and July contracts were 1 cent higher to $11.17 per bushel, but most later contracts for soybeans were lower in afternoon trade.

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