Commodities: Crude falls on Europe concerns and stronger dollar

Date: Friday 29 Jun 2012

Crude oil futures dropped to their lowest level since October 4th on Thursday, pushed into decline by worries over the two-day EU summit which is focused on dealing with Europe's on-going financial crisis.

Also weighing on the commodity was a strong dollar as well as losses on all three of the major US indices, as investors feared demand for oil could drop.

The August futures contract for Crude fell $2.52, equal to 3.1%, to $77.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, increased from 82.585 on Wednesday evening to 82.796 last night.

Meanwhile, natural gas put an end to five-session streak of ending higher, dropping 2.7% to $2.72 per million British thermal units.

Heating oil lost 1.66% to $2.55 per gallon while unleaded gas dropped 0.86% to $2.48 per gallon, both on the August contracts.

Metals weren't doing any better, with gold losing 1.77% to $1,550.40 per troy ounce, also on the August contract.

Silver dropped 2.58% to $26.25, platinum fell 1.7% to $1,389.30 and copper declined 0.7% to $3.33 per pound.

NR

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