(raw materials / closing price /% change)

Light Crude 95.96 +1.49%

Gold 1,287.40 -0.23%

Brent crude extended a two-month slide as OPEC's production was seen increasing and manufacturing gauges in Europe and China missed estimates. West Texas Intermediate fell in New York.

Futures slid as much as 0.4 percent in London, having retreated more than $9 in July and August. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted output by 891,000 barrels a day to 31 million in August, the highest level in a year, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show. Purchasing Manufacturing Indexes for Germany, Italy, the U.K. and China all came in below estimates for August. Floor trading in the U.S. is closed for the Labor Day holiday today.

"Those disappointing PMI numbers are helping push oil prices lower," Michael Hewson, a London-based analyst at CMC Markets Plc, said by e-mail. "Lower demand against expectations of higher production is helping cap the upside."

Brent for October settlement dropped as much as 37 cents to $102.82 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange and was at $103.03 as of 3:23 p.m. local time. The volume of all futures traded was about 59 percent below the 100-day average for the time of day. Prices decreased 2.7 percent in August and 5.6 percent in July, the longest monthly falling streak since one that ended in May last year. Brent is down 7.1 percent this year.

WTI for October delivery slid as much as 44 cents to $95.52 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Transactions will be booked tomorrow for settlement purposes. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $7.35 to WTI on ICE, compared with $7.23 on Aug. 29, which was the narrowest closing level since Aug. 14.

Gold prices fluctuate while the financial markets in the United States are closed and there is a reduced trading volume. In the absence of the American Statistical investors evaluate data from Europe and China.

Growth in China's processing industry slowed in August compared with July.

The official purchasing managers' index reached 51.1 points against 51.7 in July and 51 in June and has appeared as a result of lower than expected by analysts on average 51.2 points.

Experts see this as a sign of instability slowing economic recovery of the PRC.

Another PMI, published by HSBC Holdings and Markit, was the result of 50.2 points, which is much lower than July's 51.7 points (it was the highest level of the index and a half years) and pre-50.3. The index HSBC, in contrast to the official PMI, a higher proportion of medium and small private companies.

At the same time the value of both the PMI index remains above 50, indicating continued growth in the processing industry of China.

At the same time, German GDP fell in the second quarter of 2014 by 0.2% compared with the previous quarter, according to final data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis).

Economic growth in the April-June was 1.2% compared to the same period in 2013, adjusted for the number of working days.

The dynamics of both indicators coincided with the preliminary data as well as the forecast of analysts.

Part of the reduction is due to the transfer of the German economy in the production of the first months of the year due to an unusually warm winter, however, the Bundesbank has signaled the lack of confidence in the booming growth in the second half of the year, and noted that its full-year forecast may be too optimistic. According to the current forecast of the Central Bank, Germany's GDP in 2014 will increase by 1.9%, in 2015 - by 2%.

However, news of the weakness in the euro zone's largest economy came amid expectations of new stimulus measures from the European Central Bank, which will hold a regular meeting on Thursday.

According to Destatis, capital expenditures in the country fell by 2.3% in the second quarter, while construction output fell by 4.2%. However, the costs of the state and the population grew in the April-June by 0.1%.

The volume of German exports in the last quarter rose by 0.9%, imports - by 1.6%.

The cost of the October gold futures on the COMEX to date is $ 1287.40 per ounce.