Crude oil prices drop but natural gas futures rise

October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 43 cents Monday to $68.86 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude was down 13 cents to $67.56 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London as many refineries began to ramp down production for scheduled autumn maintenance.

Nymex October gasoline was down 2 cents to $1.74 per gallon but November heating oil gained a cent to $1.78 per gallon.

Additionally, natural gas prices were much higher, with Nymex futures adding 40 cents during the session to $3.36 per 1,000 cubic feet despite growing stockpiles that have storage facilities nearly full in some places and put inventories 17 percent higher than last year at this time along with predictions that much of the US will see a mild winter that would create weak demand for natural gas for heating.

December copper was down 4 cents to $2.80 per pound in New York trade while three-month copper was 1.8 percent lower to $6,140 per tonne in London and the price of copper in Shanghai fell by the exchange limit of 5 percent after inventories in Shanghai-monitored warehouses grew by 12 percent last week and LME stockpiles were up another half a percent to 319,000 tonnes, their highest level in nearly two years.

Other base metals were also lower in London, but lead prices climbed on the session.

Most precious metals prices were also lower as December gold dropped $5.30 to $1,001.10 per troy ounce while December silver was 8 cents lower to $16.62 per troy ounce and October platinum dropped $1 to $1,318 per troy ounce.

On the other hand, December palladium was $1.25 higher to $295.75 per troy ounce in New York.

Grains prices were lower in Chicago, with December corn down less than a cent to $3.17 per bushel while December wheat fell 1 cent to $4.53 per bushel and November soybeans dropped 3 cents to $9.06

Story link: Crude oil prices drop but natural gas futures rise