Oil, metals prices gain in New York

The price of crude oil was up Wednesday on a weaker US dollar and on a report from the US Energy Information Administration showing that while crude oil inventories were up last week, they didn’t gain as much as expected.

December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up $2.25 to $81.31 per barrel near the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude had added $2.90 to $80.14 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex November gasoline futures were up 7 cents to $2.05 per gallon in afternoon trade, while December heating oil gained 6 cents to $2.13 per gallon but December natural gas was down 14 cents to $5.79 per million British thermal units.

The weekly inventories report from the EIA said that crude oil stockpiles were up by 1.3 million barrels last week, less than the 2.3 million barrels analysts had expected.

Gasoline inventories fell more than the 2.3 million barrels which had been anticipate, while distillates in stock also declined.

Metals prices were higher as December gold added $5.90 to $1,064.50 per troy ounce in New York trade on the weaker dollar as investors became concerned that the weakening currency could reduce the value of paper assets.

December silver gained 27 cents to $17.83 per troy ounce and January platinum was up $18.10 to $1,374.40 per troy ounce while in mid-morning trade December palladium added $2.85 to $340.50 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, December copper was up 10 cents to $3.04 per pound in New York trade after Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) said that it is not yet prepared to restart production at its copper mines in Arizona, although it left room for a limited return to production at those mines in the near future.

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