West Texas Intermediate rose as Tropical Storm Karen pushed through the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S. coast, threatening crude production in the region.

Prices gained as much as 0.9 percent. Karen will make landfall early Oct. 6 on the southeastern tip of Louisiana, according to the National Hurricane Center. BP Plc is shutting in all its oil and natural gas production in the Gulf, and LOOP LLC will suspend tanker operations at noon. The U.S. government shutdown entered a fourth day as House Speaker John Boehner said that he won’t allow the U.S. to default on its debt.

WTI for November delivery increased 58 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $103.89 a barrel at 10:58 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The volume of all futures traded was about 50 percent below the 100-day average. Prices are up 1 percent this week and 13 percent this year.

Brent for November settlement gained 39 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $109.39 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange yesterday. Futures were 39 percent below the 100-day average. The European benchmark was at a premium of $5.50 to WTI, compared with $5.69 yesterday.

Gold price shows a moderate decline at the time, as in the U.S. for the fourth day suspension of the work of federal government agencies.

Against the background of stopping the U.S. government this week, many of the economic reports were not published. The most notable was the lack of jobs report in the U.S. - the main economic indicator.

The report , which was supposed to reflect the increase of 179 million in September against 169 million previously , recently had an even more important as might affect the Fed's decision to curtail the program QE. Thus , the fact that the report will not be published until the problem resolves " shatdauna " clearly speaks against " the October collapse ," experts say.

However , the Labor Department released other data on the labor market - a report on changes in the level of employment ADP ( Wednesday) and claiming the benefit for b / r (Thursday ) . Data on promzakazy and spending in the construction sector included in the list of reports , publication of which was canceled.

At the same time, buy gold futures on COMEX today hampered by the decline in investment demand for gold bullion . The assets of the world's largest holder of gold investment institutions exchange traded fund SPDR Gold Trust at the end of business day October 3, 2013 decreased by 1.8 tons and amounted to 899.99 tons for the first time since February 10, 2009 rate dropped below 900 tons

The cost of the December gold futures on COMEX today dropped to $ 1305.10 per ounce.

GOLD 1,317.40 -3.20 -0.24%

OIL (WTI) 103.02 -1.08 -1.04%