WTI ends 10 percent lower for week

The price of crude oil was lower Friday to end the week 10.3 percent lower than it began on concerns about what kind of news quarterly earnings reports, which are just beginning to come in, will say about the economy.

West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was 52 cents lower to $59.89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude dropped 58 cents to $60.52 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Also hurting prices was a report on US consumer sentiment which showed it down to 64.6 in early July from 70.8 in June, more of a decline than had been expected.

Nymex August gasoline futures were down a cent to $1.65 per gallon and August natural gas dropped 4 cents to $3.37 per million British thermal units, while August heating oil held steady at $1.53 per gallon.

Tin prices were $705 lower to $11,900 per tonne in late afternoon trade on the London Metal Exchange as inventories stood at 17,720 in LME warehouses, twice that at the end of 2008.

Copper prices were also lower in late afternoon trade in London, falling $16 to $4,879 per tonne and September copper was down 3 cents to $2.21 per pound in New York despite declines in LME inventories and reports of gains in imports by China last month.

Aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel were all also lower in late London trade.

Among precious metals, August gold was down $3.90 to $912.30 per troy ounce in New York, while September silver was 29 cents lower to $12.65 per troy ounce and October platinum dropped $2.90 to $1,107.60 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were mixed in Chicago in afternoon trade as July corn added 6 cents to $3.46 per bushel but July wheat fell less than a cent to $4.91 per bushel and July soybeans dropped a cent to $11.27 per bushel.

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