US inventories send oil prices lower

Crude oil prices were lower Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported that while crude oil stockpiles fell by 3.8 million barrels during the week ending 4 December, gasoline inventories added 2.2 million barrels and distillates, including heating oil and diesel fuel, added 1.6 million barrels to storage.

At about half an hour before the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude had dropped $2.09 to $70.53 per barrel, while January Brent crude was $2.89 lower to $72.30 in the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

In afternoon trade, Nymex January gasoline futures were 6 cents lower to $1.87 per gallon while January heating oil was down 7 cents to $1.92 per gallon and January natural gas dropped 3 cents to $5.08 per million British thermal units.

Copper prices fell Wednesday after early gains on concerns about supply after stalled talks over pay issues caused miners to block a mine entrance in Chile, as investors worried about the health of economic recovery on the news that Standard & Poor’s had cut Spain’s credit outlook to “negative”.

A stall in the recovery could hurt demand for metals used in industry.

March copper was down 4 cents to $3.12 per pound in New York trade, while three-month contracts fell $140 to $6,836 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Other London-traded base metals were mixed, with nickel and aluminium seeing prices rise while prices for zinc, lead, and tin all declined.

Meanwhile, among precious metals, February gold saw another session of declines as it dropped $22.50 to $1,120.90 per troy ounce in New York, while March silver fell 63 cents to $17.18 per troy ounce and January platinum was $31.20 lower to $1,409.20 per troy ounce.

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