(raw materials / closing price /% change)

Gold $1,338.9 +1.10 +1.08%

ICE Brent Crude Oil $107.79 -1.51 -1.38%

NYMEX Crude Oil $100.98 -2.38 -2.30%

West Texas Intermediate and Brent crudes extended losses after a government report showed that U.S. inventories advanced for a seventh week.

Futures fell as much as 1.1 percent in New York after the Energy Information Administration said supplies rose by 1.43 million barrels last week to 363.8 million. A 1.3 million-barrel gain was projected, according to the median of analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Prices also slid on speculation that the dispute in Ukraine’s Crimea region won’t disrupt oil shipments.

WTI for April delivery dropped 98 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $102.35 a barrel at 10:40 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures traded at $102.75 before the EIA report was released at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. The volume of all futures traded was near the 100-day average.

Brent for April settlement declined 87 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $108.43 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Futures were at $108.38 before the report. Trading was 16 percent higher than the 100-day average.

WTI dropped 1.5 percent yesterday, the biggest decline in two months, after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he sees no immediate need to invade eastern Ukraine. Top U.S. and Russia diplomats will meet to try to reduce tensions in Ukraine, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Paris today.

About 313,000 barrels of crude a day transited via Ukraine in 2013, according to the country’s Energy Ministry. The southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline moves Russian oil through the Ukraine to refineries in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

“The realization that there’s little risk of a disruption of Russian oil shipments to Europe is weighing on the market,” said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

The price of gold rises slightly after sharp fluctuations in the previous two sessions , while the impact of geopolitical factors weakened. A slight increase of the precious metal held against the depreciation of the dollar against major currencies, which contributed released in the U.S. statistics.

As shown by recent data that were presented Automatic Data Processing (ADP), in February, employment in the private sector increased markedly , although not enough to confirm the evaluation of many economists. According to a report last month, the number of employees increased by 139 thousand people, compared with a revised downward indicator for the previous month at 127 million ( initially reported growth of 175 thousand jobs ) . Add that, according to the average forecast of this indicator would grow by 159 thousand

In turn, in February, the index of business activity in the U.S. service sector (ISM Non-Manufacturing) fell to 51.6 points, the minimum for the last four years , with 54 points in January , according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). According to experts , the value of this indicator was reduced to 53.8 . Exceeding the index level of 50 points indicates growth of business activity in the service sector , while the index value below 50 indicates its decline. All major sub- indices , except one, were in February in the territory of the expansion (more than 50 ) , and some even showed an increase .

The cost of the April gold futures on the COMEX today rose to $ 1340.80 per ounce.