Commodities prices see mixed day

Prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil were down New York trade Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly inventories data, which showed that crude oil stockpiles fell less than expected last week while gasoline and distillates inventories both increased.

WTI September contracts dropped 21 cents to $65.40 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and went as low as $63.76 per barrel earlier, but Brent crude added 32 cents to $67.19 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Despite gains in gasoline and distillates stockpiles and declines in demand, Nymex August gasoline futures added 3 cents to $1.84 per gallon while September heating oil futures wee up a cent to $1.74 per gallon.

The EIA reported that crude oil inventories fell 1.8 million barrels last week, less than expected, to 342.7 million barrels, while gasoline stockpiles added 800,000 barrels to 215.4 million barrels and distillates in storage were up by 1.2 million barrels to 160.5 million barrels.

Copper prices were higher Wednesday on reports that demand for the metal was higher in China in June and that manufacturing also expanded there during the month, while prices were also helped by news that a mine in Chile might see reduced output for several months after an electrical problem put is main conveyor belt out of service and by reports of another attack against miners at an Indonesian mine.

September copper was up 7 cents to $2.53 per pound in New York trade while three-month copper added $64 to $5,464 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Other base metals were also higher on the session.

August gold added $6.80 to $953.70 per troy ounce in New York trade while September silver was up 24 cents to $13.72 per troy ounce, but October platinum was down $1.30 to $1,175.70 per troy ounce while September palladium had dropped 90 cents to $256.60 per troy ounce in midday trade in New York.

Grains prices were mixed in afternoon trade in Chicago, where September wheat added a cent to $5.23 per bushel and September corn was up less than a cent to $3.08 per bushel but August soybeans dropped less than a cent to $10.18 per bushel.

Story link: Commodities prices see mixed day