Oil and metals gain; grains prices little changed

Crude oil prices climbed Thursday on stronger equities markets, on a gain in existing home sales in the United States, and on a weaker dollar.

September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.76 to $67.16 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude added $2.04 to $69.25 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex August gasoline futures added 7 cents to $1.91 per gallon on the session while September heating oil was up a cent to $1.74 per gallon.

September natural gas, however, dropped 23 cents to $3.71 per million British thermal units on new data showing that natural gas stockpiles were up by 66 billion cubic feet to 2.952 trillion cubic feet in the US last week.

Prices for September copper were little changed at $2.53 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper added $30 to $5,530 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

The gains came even though LME copper inventories added 3,225 tonnes to 271,725 tonnes on the session, as the National Association of Realtors reported new data showing that US existing home sales were up 3.6 percent in June.

Other base metals prices were also higher while August gold was up $1.50 to $954.80 per troy ounce after going as high as $956.90 earlier in the New York session on a weaker US dollar, September silver added 7 cents to $13.77 per troy ounce and October platinum gained $12.30 to $1,188 per tonne.

Grains prices were little changed in afternoon trade in Chicago as September wheat traded even at $5.31 per bushel while September corn and August soybeans each added less than a cent, to $3.26 per bushel and $9.63 per bushel respectively.

Story link: Oil and metals gain; grains prices little changed