Commodities prices rebound

Crude oil prices were up on Tuesday after substantial declines on Monday. Brent crude June contracts dropped $2.65 on Monday but were back up 56 cents from Monday’s close in late trade on the International Petroleum Exchange to $70.23 per barrel. June contracts expire at the end of the trading day on Tuesday, so more attention became focused on July Brent contracts, which gained 87 cents to $71.05 per barrel. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange saw June contracts add 89 cents to $70.30 per barrel. The gains come ahead of new US inventories numbers, due on Wednesday.

Precious metals were up as well. Gold added $8 to $688.90/$689.70 per troy ounce after dropping 4 percent on Monday. Silver was trading 25 cents higher at $13.40/$13.50, after losing 6 percent on Monday. Platinum, which lost less than other precious metals on Monday, added $23 to $1,293 per troy ounce on Tuesday.

Among base metals, copper added $220 to $8,410 after a 9 percent decline on Monday. It is back to within 5 percent of its record high price, reached on Thursday of last week. Part of the advance on the day were relaxed supply concerns after Grupo Mexico said it will not close its San Martin mine after all as striking miners have agreed to go back to work.

In other base metals, zinc was up $85 to $3,500 per tonne, while aluminium added $38 to $2,990 per tonne and nickel gained $450 to $20,450.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: Commodities prices rebound