Oil, metals prices fall on Bernanke speech

Crude oil prices fell Monday on remarks from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke which indicated that recovery of the US economy might not come quickly as the labor market remains week and inflation will remain low and might even go lower than present rates.

January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude was $1.67 lower to $73.80 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report, January Brent crude dropped 75 cents to $76.77 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex January gasoline futures were 2 cents lower to $1.95 per gallon, while January heating oil also dropped 2 cents, to $2.01 per gallon, but January natural gas futures added 38 cents to $4.97 per million British thermal units.

Bernanke’s remarks, in a speech to a group of economists in Washington, also affected metals prices, sending them lower.

February gold was down $5.40 to $1,163.40 per troy ounce in New York after going as low as $1,136.30 per troy ounce earlier in the session, while March silver fell 14 cents to $18.38 per troy ounce, January platinum dropped $5.10 to $1,444.60 per troy ounce and, in mid-morning trade, March palladium had dropped $9 to $370.30 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, copper was down 3 cents to $3.21 per pound in New York, while three-month copper contrcts dropped 1 percent to $6,971 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange after LME inventories rose again, topping 452,000 tonnes.

Nickel prices were up in London, but aluminium, lead, tin and zinc all saw price declines on the session.

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