Oil prices slipped on Wednesday ahead of the latest US weekly inventories data while base metals were mixed and gold consolidated around the $980 an ounce level.
In oil markets, Nymex July West Texas Intermediate slipped 53 cents to $68.02 a barrel while ICE July Brent lost 40 cents at $67.77 a barrel.
The US summer driving season has started and government inventory data, due for release later in the session, were expected to show a fall of 1.4m barrels in crude stocks and an increase of 400,000 barrels in petrol inventories, according to a poll of analysts by Reuters.
Nymex RBOB July unleaded gasoline traded fractionally weaker at $1.9176 a gallon.
Refinery utilisation was forecast to increase 0.5 percentage points to 85.6 per cent as refineries continued to step up activity to meet rising demand.
