Commodities Fall Sharply, Oil Down over 2% (USO, UNG, GLD, SLV, APA, MUR)

Commodities were trading down with selling spread across the entire asset class including metals and energy.
Crude for June delivery is the biggest loser and plunged 2.15%, to $10.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This morning, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said policy makers didn’t discuss an interest-rate cut, which many analysts have said may be

Midmorning, the Institute for Supply Management said growth in the U.S. services sector slowed to a six-month low in April. Its services index fell to 53.5% versus forecasts for a 55.4% reading.Yesterday, after an inventories report showed an increase in crude supplies in line with expectations. The Energy Information Administration reported a rise in crude supplies by 2.8 million barrels to a 21-year high. Analysts polled by Platts had expected a rise of 2.5 million barrels. The EIA also reported a decline in gasoline inventories by 2 million barrels, and a decline in distillates supplies by 1.9 million barrels. The Platts analysts had expected gasoline stockpiles down 1 million barrels and distillates supplies down 400,000 barrels.

Natural-gas bucked the trend and gained 4.80% to $2.36 per million British thermal units after a lower than increase in weekly inventory. The Energy Information Administration reported an increase of 28 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 27, compared to analysts’ estimates of a rise of 34 bcf.

The ICE dollar index rose marginally to 79.22, up from 79.151 in late North American trading on Thursday.
Gold for June delivery fell $19, or 1.12%, at $1,635 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. July copper fell 1.33%, to $3.4. Silver for July delivery was down 160%, to $3.16 an ounce.
July platinum fell $27.60 or 1.76%, to $1,537 an ounce while palladium for June delivery declined 1% to $662.40 an ounce.

United States Oil Fund LP (ETF)(NYSEARCA:USO) was down 0.94 (-2.36%) at $38.95, SPDR Gold Trust (ETF)(NYSEARCA:GLD) fell 1.85 (-1.15%) to $158.75, iShares Silver Trust (ETF)(NYSEARCA:SLV) slid 0.52 (-1.75%) to $29.26 and United States Natural Gas Fund, LP(NYSEARCA:UNG) was up 0.68 (4.20%) to $16.86.
Apache Corporation(NYSE:APA) lost 4% after the largest U.S. independent oil and natural-gas producer by market value reported first-quarter earnings excluding some items of $3 a share, missing the average analyst estimate of $3.07.
Murphy Oil Corporation(NYSE:MUR) was down 4.70% after the company reported a 7.9% jump in its first-quarter to $290.1 million, or $1.49 per share in comparison with $268.9 million, or $1.22 per share.
Falling short of the analysts’ anticipation of a profit of $1.53 per share on revenue of $7.21 billion, on average, the company reported a raise of 11.5% in revenue to $6.99 billion. The rise in the net income was mainly due to the fall in the exploration expenses and selling of the crude oil on higher prices. The exploration expenses fell to $53 million, compared to $96.3 million a year ago. The company is now expecting to earn $1.35 to $1.60 per share for its second quarter while the analysts are forecasting the company to earn $ 1.56 per share.