Crude oil and precious metals prices drop on session

The price West Texas Intermediate crude fell Thursday by 6 cents to $72.45 per barrel for October contracts by about five minutes before the close of the floor session on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a day of up-and-down trade that saw the price go as high as $73.16 per barrel before settling lower.

Meanwhile, at last report Brent crude was down 15 cents to $71.52 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex October gasoline futures added a cent to $1.86 per gallon in late morning trade, but a report from the US Energy Information Administration saying that natural gas inventories were up again last week and now stand at more than 16 percent above the average for this time of year sent Nymex November natural gas futures down 12 cents to $4.60 per million British thermal units by late morning.

December gold dropped $6.70 Thursday to $1,013.50 per troy ounce in New York trade after going as high as $1,025.80 pr troy ounce, while December silver had dropped 17 cents from Wednesday’s close to $17.27 per troy ounce while October platinum was down $8.60 to $1,341 per troy ounce.

In morning trade, December palladium had added $7.10 to $307.60 per troy ounce.

December copper was 4 cents lower to $2.90 per pound in New York trade while three-month copper was down $48.50 to $6,371.50 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange on another gain in LME inventories, the fifteenth day in a row of gains.

Lead prices were also lower, but other base metals prices were higher in London.

Grains prices were mixed in afternoon trade in Chicago, where November soybeans were 1 cent higher to $9.51 per bushel but December wheat was down 5 cents to $4.61 per bushel and December corn dropped 8 cents to $3.28 per bushel.

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