CL
Crude futures dropped considerably on Wednesday halting a two-day rally, after a continued decline in U.S. crude inventories. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 4.9 million barrels in the week ended June 19. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock fall of 2.1 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a decline of 3.2 million barrels.
GOLD
Gold futures fell to its lowest level in more than two weeks extending losses from earlier this week amid a relatively flat dollar, stalled progress in Greek debt talks and revised estimates of contractions in the U.S. economy in the first quarter. While the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis upgraded its estimate of GDP growth for the first quarter from an initial projection of negative 0.7%, its second revision released on Wednesday still estimated negative growth at an annual rate of 0.2%. The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending, the BEA said in a statement.
