Commodities prices drop over week

Crude oil prices were lower again on Friday, with Brent crude November contracts dropping $1 to $62.54 per barrel by mid-afternoon in London, a decline of 4 percent on the week. Meanwhile, October delivery West Texas Intermediate crude fell 85 cents to $62.37 per barrel at late morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange, for a 6 percent decline over the week. Brent is down over 21 percent since its highest price, reached August 8.

The falls in prices came amid declines in forecasts for both demand growth and supply growth for this year and next. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries appears worried about the price declines and has said they could cut production at their next meeting, scheduled to take place in Nigeria in December. This has led many analysts to expect OPEC to support a price of around $60 per barrel.

Natural Gas prices were also lower during the week, dropping to $4.65 per million British thermal units, a decline of over 10 percent and its lowest price in two years.

Metals prices were down this week. Gold lost over 5 percent, ending the week in London at $575 per troy ounce. Some base metals saw even larger declines on the London Metal Exchange. Nickel was over 6 percent lower to $26,100 per tonne, while three-month copper was down $117, almost 8 percent, to $7,210 per tonne and zinc fell 10 percent to $2,150 per tonne over the week.

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