WTI trades below $63 per barrel

Crude oil prices continued to decline Tuesday even in the face of an upward-revised oil demand forecast from the US Energy Information Administration.

West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was $1.12 lower to $62.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest closing price in over a month, while Brent crude dropped 95 cents to $63.10 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex August gasoline futures fell a cent to $1.73 per gallon while August heating oil was down 3 cents to $1.60 per gallon and August natural gas dropped 5 cents to $3.44 per million British thermal units.

The decline came ahead of the upcoming weekly EIA US inventories report, which is expected to show that while oil stockpiles likely declined last week, gasoline and distillates inventories probably grew even in the middle of the summer driving season in the US.

October platinum fell $11.20 to $1,135.80 per troy ounce in New York trade, while earlier in mid-morning trade September palladium was down $1.10 to $241.55 per troy ounce.

Both metals are used in the manufacture of pollution control devices for motor vehicles.

Among other precious metals, September silver was also down, falling 2 cents to $13.22 per troy ounce, but gold was reported $4.50 higher to $928.80 per troy ounce in afternoon trade.

Meanwhile among base metals, three-month copper fell $90 to $4,880 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange despite a decline of 3,250 tonnes to 265,925 tonnes on LME-monitored warehouses during the session, while September copper was down 4 cents to $2.23 per pound.

Tin prices fell $125 to $14,125 per tonne in London and nickel was down $300 to $15,650 per tonne, but aluminium added a dollar to $1,618 per tonne.

Grains prices were also reported lower as July wheat fell 7 cents to $4.83 per bushel and July corn was down 8 cents to $3.35 per bushel.

Story link: WTI trades below $63 per barrel