Crude closed lower on Monday – Brent closed at 116 USD per barrel (USD/bbl) whereas WTI closed at 96 USD/bbl. Today, the International Energy Agency (IEA) chief Nobuo Tanaka said that the agency had not yet decided about the second round of oil release from emergency stocks. The decision is expected to be known this Saturday. Tanaka added that the IEA was watching closely output of Saudi Arabia which promised to pump more oil after “failed” OPEC meeting in the beginning of June. According to the latest OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report, the world’s top exporter produced 9.4 million barrels of oil per day, i.e. by about 460 thousand barrels more than in May. Metals Both copper and aluminium posted negligible gains yesterday. Nevertheless, weakening U.S. dollar supports base metals prices across the complex today. Hence, copper price even breaches 9800 USD per ton (USD/t), i.e. the highest level since mid April 2011. The price of the red metal holds at heightened level despite the fact that inflation in China (the world’s top consumer) surprisingly surged to 6.4 percent year-on-year in June. Gold still benefits from the rising risk aversion generated by the euro-zone periphery as well as from Fed’s Bernanke recent remarks that suggested that the third round of quantitative easing might not be ruled out. As a result, gold price breached 1600 USD per troy ounce (USD/toz) level for the first time in history as it moved back above channel off April 2009. The yellow metal is currently trading for 1602.61 USD/toz.