CM: Oil Inches Up Ahead of U.S. Weekly Crude Data; Gold Gains as Safe Haven Allure Persists
Oil is up slightly but traders are taking a wait-and-see approach until the release of the latest weekly U.S. inventories data at 1030 ET. There is solid buying interest as the price of crude falls close to $71 amid bargain-hunting, analysts said.
Gold is gaining ground as investors continue to be attracted to safe haven assets, particularly after the release of the July U.S. existing homes data Tuesday. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales posted its biggest drop in over a decade.
At 0750 ET, Brent crude is up 0.3% at $72.40 a barrel, while light sweet crude is down 0.2% at $71.52 a barrel, and natural gas is down 0.2% at $4.03 a million British thermal units.
Gold is up 0.3% at $1,236.50 an ounce, while silver is up 0.9% at $18.61 an ounce, and copper is down 0.9% at $3.23 a pound.
BP plc ( BP ) is one of 12 companies bidding to develop offshore exploration blocks off Greenland, according to the Times of London. Other companies bidding for the licenses to cover the norther part of Baffin Bay in the Arctic Circle include Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDSA) and Norway's Statoil ASA ( STO ).
Chevron Corp ( CVX ) said a gas compressor at its El Segundo, California refinery has been restarted Tuesday night and normal operations were expected to resume quickly.
Parker Drilling Co ( PKD ) said Mexico's GPA Energy is planning to end a contract for two rigs in northern Mexico under force majeure provisions. One rig was scheduled to end operations this month, while another has been contracted through the second quarter of 2012. Force majeure frees a company from liability when it cannot fulfill contractual obligations due to unaviodable catastrophes.
In the mining sector, Harmony Gold Mining Co ( HAR ) said it will delay developing its $815.8 million shart in South Africa due to cash constraints. CEO Graham Briggs said it would be difficult to secure board approval for the project when the company's other units were ramping up production.
Another mine has collapsed in South America, this time in southern Venezuela where six men were killed in a gold pit as a tunnel caved in. Venezuela has a large gold deposit, and many wildcat miners have sought to take advantage of the yellow metal's recent price surge by digging illegal makeshift pits, while the country's formal mining industry is small. In Chile, meanwhile, 33 coal miners remain trapped and are likely to remain so for several more months.
