Oil prices mixed; metals, most grains see gains

The price for West Texas Intermediate crude was lower in New York Monday, and analysts predicted that prices would continue to fall throughout the week and could go as low as between $50 and $55 per barrel soon.

August contracts for WTI fell 20 cents to $59.69 per barrel by the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange after going as low as $58.32 per barrel earlier in the session, while Brent crude added 18 cents to $60.70 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex August gasoline futures dropped a cent to $1.64 per gallon while Nymex heating oil was down 3 cents to $1.50 per gallon and Nymex natural gas was 11 cents lower to $3.27 per million British thermal units.

Among the factors pushing prices lower was a declaration from US regulators, who said they are going to be aggressive in stopping excess speculation in energy and other commodities markets.

September copper added a cent to $2.22 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper traded at $4,853.75 per tonne in London after London Metal Exchange inventories fell to 257,225 tonnes during the session.

Prices also held close to the previous session’s levels after Freeport-McMoRan said that operations at one of its mines in Indonesia were unaffected by the discovery of a third body after two previous attacks over the weekend on individuals connected to the mine.

Precious metals prices were also higher after the US dollar weakened, creating more demand for the metals.

August gold was up $9.50 to $922 per troy ounce while September silver added 13 cents to $12.77 per troy ounce and October platinum gained $9.70 to $1,117.30 per troy ounce.

Earlier, in mid-day trade, September palladium dropped 75 cents to $234.20 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were mostly higher in mid-afternoon trade in Chicago.

July contracts for wheat added 23 cents to $5.15 per bushel and September contracts were up 24 cents to $5.42 per bushel while July corn added 11 cents on July contracts to $3.56 per bushel but were up only 3 cents to $3.31 per bushel on September contracts.

July soybeans fell less than a cent to $10.90 per bushel, but August contracts added less than a cent to $10.18 per bushel.

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