Oil declines; metals prices mostly lower

Oil prices fell on Tuesday. Brent crude July contracts dropped back below $70 per barrel as it fell 57 cents in trade on the Intercontinental Exchange in London to $69.92 per barrel. Meanwhile, in early afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, June contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were $1.29 lower to $64.98 per barrel after having traded between $64.85 and $65.95 per barrel during the morning session.

Prices for oil products were lower, as well. Nymex June gasoline dropped 9 cents to $2.31 per gallon, trading between $2.31 and $2.36 per gallon. July heating oil was down 4 cents to $1.91 per gallon, having traded between $1.91 and $1.93 per gallon. July Nymex natural gas fell 10 cents to $7.99 per million British thermal units after trading between $7.98 and $8.06 per mBtu in the morning session.

Precious metals prices were lower on Tuesday in New York. June gold dropped $3.90 to trade at $659.90 per troy ounce. July silver fell 14 cents to $12.99 per ounce, while platinum was $21 lower to $1,298.70 per troy ounce.

Meanwhile, on the London Metal Exchange, most base metals were also lower. The exception was lead, which added $5 on the session to $2,155 per tonne after going as high as $2,215 per tonne during the session. The gains came after China put a 10 percent tax on refined lead exported from June 1. China also imposed a new export tax on zinc.

Copper on the LME fell $10 to $7,270 per tonne. The price of nickel dropped $2,000, or almost 4 percent, to $48,550 per tonne after LME stockpiles were up by 402 tonnes to 5,388 tonnes during the day.