Commodities prices decline to end week

Crude oil prices dropped in New York trade Friday as equities markets saw losses and after disappointing quarterly earnings reports from retailers indicated that US consumers are not ready to spend much money yet.

With demand for oil and oil products still low, the new data left little hope that demand will recover anytime soon.

September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down $2.99 to $67.53 per barrel in afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report Brent crude had dropped 89 cents to $72.59 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex September gasoline futures and September heating oil futures each dropped 4 cents during the session, to $1.98 per gallon and $1.86 per gallon respectively, while September natural gas was down a cent to $3.33 per million British thermal units.

September copper was 8 cents lower to $2.84 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper was down 2.2 percent to $6,240 per tonne in London as inventories were up in both London and Shanghai.

Other base metals prices were also down substantially on the session, with declines from 3.7 percent for aluminum to 5 percent for nickel, which traded down $1,030 to $19,575 per tonne.

Zinc traded at $1,824 per tonne in London, while lead was at $1,850 per tonne, aluminium sold for $1,983 per tonne and tin traded at $14,510 per tonne.

Meanwhile, among precious metals, December gold fell $7.80 to $948.70 per troy ounce while September silver was down 27 cents to $14.72 per troy ounce and October platinum dropped $11 to $1,261.70 per troy ounce.

Grains prices were also lower in afternoon trade in Chicago.

While September wheat traded even at $4.81 per bushel, September corn was down 5 cents to $3.19 per bushel and September soybeans dropped 42 cents to $10.22 per bushel.

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