Oil prices ride uncertainty roller coaster

A decline in New York equities markets and little faith that a new plan of tax cuts proposed by the US president would turn the economy away from a possible recession resulted in gains in oil prices on Friday.

After a day when prices oscillated between gains and losses, February contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude traded up 47 cents to $90.60 per barrel shortly before floor trade closed on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude for March delivery added 27 cents to $89.02 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex February gasoline was up 3 cents to $2.29 per gallon and March heating oil gained a cent to $2.50 per gallon but March natural gas dropped 4 cents to $7.98 per million British thermal units.

Metals prices were mixed on Friday.

February gold was up $1.20 to $881.70 per troy ounce near the close of floor trade on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while March silver added 21 cents to $16.22 per troy ounce.

April platinum, however, was 30 cents lower to $1,565.50 per troy ounce in afternoon trade, while earlier in the day March palladium dropped $5.25 to $371 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, copper added 5 cents in New York to $3.23 per pound and three-month copper in London was up $139 to $7,130 per tonne.

London Metal Exchange copper stockpiles were 2,325 tonnes lower on the day, the 9th consecutive session of declining inventories.

Grains prices were also mixed.

March contracts for corn and soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade were lower on worries that high prices could translate to falling demand globally.

March corn dropped 3.75 cents to $4.98 per bushel on CBOT while March soybeans were down 7 cents to $12.66.

March CBOT wheat, however, added 22 cents to $9.62 per bushel.

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