Crude oil prices were lower in early afternoon trade in New York after the US Energy Information Administration reported that US inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates all dropped last week.
The EIA said that crude oil stockpiles were down by 900,000 barrels in the week ending 13 November, while gasoline inventories dropped by 1.7 million barrels and distillates in storage were 300,000 barrels lower than the previous week.
At around 1:30 p.m. in New York, December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down 38 cents to $78.76 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report December Brent crude had dropped 6 cents to $78.91 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London, with both prices falling after gains earlier in the session.
The retail price of a gallon of gasoline in the US reversed its declines to gain less than a cent to $2.632 per gallon overnight as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches in just over a week.
Most metals prices were higher on the session.
December gold was $1.80 higher to $1,141.20 per troy ounce in New York trade after reaching another record high at $1,153.40 per troy ounce, reached earlier in the session, while December silver added 3 cents to $18.42 per troy ounce.
January platinum, however, dropped $10.50 to $1,452 per troy ounce.
Among base metals, March copper traded around Tuesday’s levels to close at $3.14 per pound in New York, while three-month contracts in London added $54 to $6,880 per tonne on the weaker dollar and on hopes that demand will recover, but gains were limited by a report that housing starts in the US in October were down by 10.6 percent and by more gains in London Metal Exchange inventories.
Lead added $18 to $2,403 per tonne in London, while aluminium was up $29 to $2,065 per tonne after going as high as $2,095 per tonne earlier, tin was $245 higher to $15,195 per tonne and nickel gained $300 to $17,200 per tonne.
Zinc dropped $15 to $2,248 per tonne as stockpiles added 15,650 tonnes to over 449,000 tonnes.
