Oil prices lower as metals see gains

After rising to as much as $61.46 per barrel earlier in the day, August contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude ended the floor session down 17 cents to $59.52 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report Brent crude had dropped a cent to $60.68 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

It was the lowest close in two months for WTI, and resulted from concerns that US inventories of gasoline will have risen again last week as well as on a mixed report on US retail sales in June.

Nymex August gasoline and heating oil futures were each about a cent higher, to $1.65 per gallon and $1.51 per gallon respectively, while August natural gas gained 17 centst to $3.43 per million British thermal units.

A weaker US dollar helped metals prices.

September copper added 8 cents to $2.30 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper added $150 to $5,045 per tonne London as London Metal Exchange stockpiles of the metal fell by 325 tonnes during the session.

Aluminium, meanwhile, added $33 to $1,594 per tonne in London even as inventories remained above 4.4 million tonnes, in record territory.

Lead was up $35 to $1,590 per tonne while zinc added $50 to $1,490 per tonne, tin was $600 higher to $12,900 per tonne and nickel gained $775 to $15,500 per tonne.

August gold added 30 cents to $922.80 per troy ounce in New York while September silver was up 7 cents to $12.86 per troy ounce and October platinum gained $17.80 to $1,135.10 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were mixed in afternoon trade in Chicago.

August soybeans were up less than a cent to $10.35 per bushel while September corn held steady at $3.38 per bushel and September wheat dropped a cent to $5.29 per bushel.

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