On Wednesday, the front-month contract on Brent settled at 109.51 USD per barrel (USD/bbl) level although the price was seen even below 108.50 in intraday trading. Regarding the EIA figures on weekly US oil inventories, it showed a further decline in distillates stocks (although relatively small this time). Thus, distillates stocks are even more below medium term average. The overall message of the report was, however, rather bearish due to a sharp increase in gasoline stocks. Precious Metals The price of gold posted the largest losses in about a month as it breached 50 days moving average (1737 USD/toz) and consequently fell even to 1705 USD/toz level. However, later in the session, gold recovered some losses and at the time of writing is hovering at 1720 USD/toz.