Most commodities prices down on stronger dollar

The price of crude oil was lower Tuesday ahead of a weekly inventories report from the US Energy Information Administration and after the US dollar strengthened and a new report showed an erosion in US consumer confidence in June.

The stronger dollar discouraged purchases of crude oil in other currencies, which became more expensive.

August contracts for West Texas Intermediate were down $2.21 to $69.28 per barrel a few minutes before the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In afternoon trade, Nymex August gasoline futures were 3 cents lower to $1.90 per gallon while August heating oil dropped 5 cents to $1.78 per gallon and August natural gas dropped 10 cents to $3.84 per million British thermal units.

Metals prices were also hurt by gains for the dollar and by the new data on US consumer confidence.

August gold fell $13.50 to $927.20 per troy ounce in New York trade, while September silver was 39 cents lower to $13.59 per troy ounce and October platinum dropped $7.90 to $1,185.30 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, September copper fell 6 cents to $2.27 per pound in New York while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down $83.50 to $5,015.50 per tonne.

Lead and tin prices managed to gain on the session, but aluminium, zinc and nickel all declined, with aluminium dropping 1.9 percent to $1.609 per tonne.

Most grains prices were lower in afternoon trade on the Chicago Board of Trade, but July soybeans were up a cent to $12.16 per bushel.

CBOT July wheat was down 14 cents to $5.14 per bushel while July corn dropped 30 cents to $3.47 per bushel.

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