Date: Thursday 01 Jul 2010
Despite a decrease in US crude oil inventories the price of oil retreated for the second day in succession on Wednesday.The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said stockpiles of crude oil fell 2m barrels last week from the week before. This was a bigger fall than the 1.2m barrels decrease that economists had been expecting.
Stockpiles of both gasoline and distillates were both higher, however. Gasoline stockpiles rose by 0.5m barrels to 218.1m barrels while distillates inventories grew by 2.5m barrels in the week to 25 June.
Refineries ran at 86.9% of their capacity, down three-tenths of a percentage point from the previous week.
The August futures contract for crude shed 31 cents to $75.63 a barrel in New York trade, capping the worst quarter for the oil price since the final quarter of 2008.
The oil price tumbled 9.3% during the quarter, having risen in each of the preceding five quarters.
Indications that tropical storm Alex is likely to miss most oil and gas installations near the Texas-Mexico border when it makes landfall this week also weakened support for the oil price.
In contrast to oil, gold had a good quarter, rising by 12% over the three month period, its seventh consecutive quarterly advance.
Gold for August delivery edged $3.50 higher to $1,245.90 an ounce on Wednesday after a volatile day of trading.
The precious metal had been lower in the morning session as the market digested jobs data from payroll services firm ADP which indicated private-sector employment rose by 13,000 in June, versus expectations of a 65,000 increase.
The Purchasing Managers Index for the Chicago region dipped to 59.1% in June from 59.7% in May, in line with forecasts. This sparked a bit more interest in gold and the yellow stuff moved into positive territory as the trading session progressed. 
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