West Texas Intermediate fell from its highest settlement in almost two weeks as the U.S. government’s partial shutdown fanned concern that economic growth may slow.

Futures slid as much as 0.6 percent in New York. Talks between President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders yesterday failed to break the budget logjam as the partial government closure entered its third day. WTI jumped 2 percent yesterday to the highest level since Sept. 20 after TransCanada Corp. said it expects to complete work on the southern portion of its Keystone pipeline expansion by the end of October.

WTI for November delivery dropped as much as 65 cents to $103.45 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $103.69 as of 1:22 p.m. London time. The contract yesterday advanced to $104.10 in the first gain in four days. The volume of all futures traded was about 2 percent below the 100-day average.

Brent for November settlement fell as much as 49 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $108.70 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark was at a premium of $5.82 to WTI, up from $5.09 yesterday, the least since Sept. 23.

Gold prices decline on weak economic performance and closing the U.S. Government .

From the beginning, gold fell by almost 25 percent due to concerns that the Fed this year will decline in buying bonds. Before you start reducing the incentives , the Fed need to get the October economic data , said the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston , Eric Rosengren . But many federal agencies have suspended the collection and publication of data due to the termination of funding .

Markets are worried about the outcome of the upcoming negotiations in mid-October to raise the upper limit of borrowing dollars. According to analysts, if the politicians fail to agree on raising the debt ceiling , the world 's largest economy could default that will hurt global growth .

Activity in the U.S. non-manufacturing sector grew in September , but at a much slower pace than expected . Employment growth also slowed. This is according to data released on Thursday by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Reported Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the non-production sphere of the United States in September fell to 54.4 from 58.6 in August. The August index was the highest since January 2008 , when the index was introduced . Economists expected the index to decline only in September to 57.2 . A reading above 50 indicates expanding activity .

Stocks of the world's largest exchange-traded fund backed by gold (ETF) SPDR Gold Trust on Wednesday declined by 4.2 tons to 901.79 tons, which was the sharpest decline in nearly three weeks .

Physical demand remains depressed due to a national holiday in China. Chinese markets will resume work on October 8.

The cost of the December gold futures on COMEX today dropped to $ 1302.00 per ounce.

GOLD 1,320.60 34.60 2.69%

OIL (WTI) 103.87 1.83 1.79%