Crude futures rise sharply

Crude oil futures rose sharply Wednesday in anticipation of weekly US inventory figures due out Thursday. It is expected that the new data will show another small decline in crude stockpiles and increases in inventories of gasoline and distillates.

JP Morgan has said that it expects crude oil inventories to be down by 250,000 barrels, while it thinks gasoline supplies will go up by 2 million barrels while inventories of such distillates as heating oil and diesel fuel are likely to increase by 2.1 million barrels.

West Texas Intermediate for July delivery was up $2.63 to $54.60 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while December contracts for WTI were up over $1 to $54.55 per barrel. Meanwhile in London, IPE Brent for July delivery sat at $53.27 per barrel, also a substantial rise.

In other commodities, metals prices rose after initial declines on the day on the London Metal Exchange. Copper rose $43 to $3,090 per tonne.

Aluminium was up $4 to $1,751 per tonne. Lead gained $10 to trade at $972.5 as stockpiles in LME registered warehouses fell to 29,700 tonnes, the lowest inventory level since March 1990.

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