Brent crude held its gain after OPEC kept its production target unchanged and West Texas Intermediate was little changed in New York amid speculation that U.S. inventories dropped last week.

Futures rose 0.3 percent in London as OPEC ministers in Vienna left the group’s output ceiling unchanged at 30 million barrels a day. Crude stockpiles probably dropped by 2 million barrels last week to 387.5 million, a Bloomberg News survey shows before Energy Information Administration data today. In Iraq, a breakaway al-Qaeda group took control of the city of Mosul and there were conflicting reports about the situation in Baiji, home to the nation’s biggest refinery.

“There were no surprises with OPEC but the deteriorating situation in Iraq could start to have an effect at the margins,” Michael Hewson, a London-based market analyst at CMC Markets, said by e-mail.

Brent for July settlement gained 37 cents to $109.89 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at 1:15 p.m. London time. Prices have decreased 0.8 percent this year.

WTI for July delivery was at $104.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 11 cents. The volume of all futures traded was about 19 percent below the 100-day average for the time of day. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $5.50 to WTI. The spread narrowed for a third day yesterday to close at $5.17.

Gold prices rose slightly after the World Bank cut growth forecast for the world economy, as investors increased demand for the precious metal as a safe-haven.

World Bank (WB) lowered its growth forecast of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 from 3.2 to 2.8 percent. This is due to the conflict and the Ukrainian unusually harsh winter in the United States. So, if in January estimate of the growth of the world economy grew by 0.2 percent compared with a forecast in June 2013, it has now dropped to 0.4 percent.

In a new forecast based on the assumption that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine will continue, but it will not happen aggravation. According to Andrew Burns, the lead author of the WB study, the escalation of the conflict could undermine investor confidence. "Markets and investors do not like uncertainty," - he said.

The Bank has lowered its forecast for economic growth for developing countries from 5.3 to 4.8 percent. According to the head of Jim Yong Kim WB, GDP growth rates of countries "remain too moderate" and the third consecutive year will be below 5 percent.

For 2015 and 2016 the World Bank forecast remains unchanged, it indicates an increase in global economic growth by 3.4 or 3.5 percent. According to experts, in the current year expected economic boom due primarily to the fact that the economies of the rich countries continue to recover.

The cost of the August gold futures on the COMEX today rose to $ 1265.5 per ounce.

Gold $1,259.80 +5.80 +0.46%

ICE Brent Crude Oil $109.64 -0.35 -0.32%

NYMEX Crude Oil $104.31 -0.36 -0.34%