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Commodities: Crude tops $115 a barrel

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Date: Thursday 17 Apr 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Crude futures topped $155 a barrel on Wednesday, another record high, before settling slightly lower.

US light crude oil for May delivery finished the day up $1.14 at $114.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Earlier in the session oil hit a trading high of $115.07 following the release of weekly government inventories.

The report showed a surprise drop in crude supplies. Crude inventories fell 2.3m barrels to 313.7m barrels in the week ended 11 April, the US Energy Information Administration said. Most analysts has pencilled in an increase of 1.5m barrels.

Gasoline supplies fell by 5.5m barrels while distillate stocks rose by 100,000 barrels.

A weaker dollar also helped ramp up oil prices Wednesday as the greenback hit a new low against the euro.

Among precious metals gold rose $16.30 to $948.30 as the dollar dropped to a new low against the euro following a stronger than expected EU inflation report.

The report showed inflation in the euro zone rose to 3.6% in March, reducing expectations that the ECB will cut interest rates from 4%. In contrast the Fed has been cutting interest rates in bid to sooth the economic slowdown.

Other metals rose with silver for May up 48 cents to $18.33 and platinum for July up $50.90 to $2,037.30.