Oil leads commodities lower

Crude oil prices were lower again Monday as investors and analysts worried that demand will remain weak as more data, including last week’s US jobs report for June, made it look as if the economy is not recovering well from the recession.

August contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down $2.68 to $64.05 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exhchange after going as low as $63.40 per barrel earlier in the session, while Brent crude was down $1.21 to $65.40 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex August gasoline futures fell 5 cents to $1.74 per gallon while August heating oil was down 8 cents to $1.63 per gallon and August natural gas dropped 13 cents to $3.49 per million British thermal units.

Demand worries also drove copper prices lower after Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK; NYSE: DB) forecast that demand for the metal used in construction and manufacturing will drop 3.9 percent this year amid indications that copper imports into China will decline in July and August.

September copper fell 4 cents to $2.26 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper dropped 1.7 percent to $4,896.50 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Aluminium prices were 0.2 percent lower to $1.589 per tonne in London, but aluminium alloy managed to gain 0.7 percent to $1,435 per tonne while nickel dropped 3.9 percent to $15,570 per tonne.

August gold was down $6.70 to $924.30 per troy ounce as the US dollar strengthened, while September silver fell 18 cents to $13.23 per troy ounce and October platinum dropped $46.30 to $1,147 per troy ounce.

Among grains prices reported by the CME Group, July corn was down 3 cents to $3.42 per bushel while July wheat fell 10 cents to $4.89 per bushel and July soybeans dropped 45 cents to $11.98 per bushel.

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