Oil sees gains; metals, grains mixed

Crude oil prices were up again on Monday on issues as diverse as leaky a leaky pipeline in the US, sabotage in Nigeria, shortages of an ingredient for summer grade gasoline, and a weak dollar.

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery added $1.62 to close at $111.76 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while May contracts for Brent crude gained $1.10 to $109.85 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex May gasoline was up just over a cent to $2.82 per gallon while June heating oil gained 1 cent to $3.20 per gallon and May natural gas was 9 cents higher to $9.99 per million British thermal units.

Precious metals prices were mixed.

June gold added $1.60 to $928.60 per troy ounce in New York and May silver was up 10 cents to $17.79 per troy ounce while July platinum dropped $46.60 to $1,981.50 per troy ounce and palladium was down $12.55 to $462.80 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, May copper was down 5 cents to $3.90 per pound in New York, while three-month copper dropped $105 to $8,545 per tonne, or $3.88 per pound, in London.

Grains prices were mixed as well, with corn and soybeans up in Chicago on the possibility that bad weather could delay US planting as excessive rain keeps fields unworkable.

May corn on the Chicago Board of Trade added 7 cents to $5.91 per bushel while May soybeans were 40 cents higher to $13.72 per bushel.

On the other hand, CBOT May wheat dropped 3 cents to $8.93 per bushel.

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