Crude oil futures rose during today's trading , rising above $ 109 per barrel (mark Brent) and $ 97 per barrel (mark WTI), as many investors are waiting for the announcement of the decision of the Federal Reserve's program of monetary stimulus . Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to provide details of when the U.S. central bank could begin to reduce its $ 85 billion program to buy bonds , which are based on global assets , including commodities and the U.S. dollar.

Oil prices also rose in the U.S. against the background that the data showed a decrease in oil reserves. Report from the Department of Energy on changes in stocks in the week December 9-14, showed :

- Oil reserves fell by 2.941 million barrels to 372.305 million barrels ;

- Gasoline inventories increased by 1,337 million barrels . to 220.486 million barrels . ;

- Distillate inventories fell by 2.11 million barrels . to 115.955 million barrels .

- Refining capacity utilization rate of 91.5 % against 92.6 % a week earlier .

Meanwhile, add that yesterday its data on oil presented the Institute of Oil API. They showed :

- Crude oil inventories -2.5 million barrels

- Gasoline inventories last week -0.481 million barrels

- Distillate stocks last week -0.434 million barrels

- Capacity utilization in the week 91.4% against 92.7 %

The course of trade was also influenced by the U.S. data , which showed that the volume of construction of new homes rose in November to its highest level in almost six years - is the latest sign of renewed movement in the restoration sector.

Construction of new homes in the U.S. rose by 22.7% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.091 million . The result was higher than economists forecast in 990 000 , and helped increase the average growth rate over the past three months to 951,000 . Sharp increase in construction of new homes was primarily driven by 21% growth in the construction of single-family homes , the largest and most stable segment of the market . In November, building permits, an indicator of future construction, fell slightly to the level of 1.007 million . Permits jumped 6.7% in October. The data showed that the growth rates of return to the building , which were observed at the beginning of this year, before a recovery in the sector affected by rising interest rates. Builders began construction on average 869,000 homes in the period from June to August.

Cost January futures for U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) grew by $ 0.19 - to $ 97.46 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

January futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture increased by $ 1.22 to $ 109.45 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.

Gold prices fell slightly in anticipation of the announcement of the Fed meeting . Note that many investors expect to hear hints about when the U.S. central bank will reduce its program of quantitative easing , known as quantitative easing . Concerns about the reduction of the program , which now amounts to $ 85 billion in the month , lowered the price of gold this year is 25 percent. We also add that ultrasoft monetary policy of the Bank raised the price of gold to record highs in 2011.

Analysts say that the price of the precious metal can be restored if the Fed said that before the narrowing of this program is still far away. Note that 34 % of the experts surveyed by Bloomberg, believe that the Fed will start winding down the program quantitative easing (QE) at the December meeting. Over 46% of the analysts interviewed by the newspaper The Wall Street Journal, to expect that the Fed will announce a reduction of monthly volumes of redemption of bonds , which now constitute the $ 85 billion before the end of January 2014 , as the outlook for the U.S. economy improved. While only 25% of respondents expect the Central Bank decreasing volumes quantitative easing (QE) at the December meeting.

Meanwhile, adding that investment interest in physical gold funds continued to wane - stocks in SPDR Gold Shares fell yesterday by 2.1 tons.

Indian demand remained depressed due to lack of inventory on the market, which kept the prize at a high level . Today, officials from the Reserve Bank of India said that it would be premature to remove " barriers " on imports of the precious metal .

In addition, it became known that gold exports from Australia - the world's second largest producer of the metal after China, may fall by 4 per cent in 2013 /14 - to the level of 270 tons. This was stated by the Australian Bureau of Resources and Energy .

The cost of the December gold futures on the COMEX today dropped to $ 1229.90 per ounce.

Gold $1,231.3 -14.20 -1.14%

Oil $97.13 -0.35 -0.36%