Oil, gold prices see gains

The price of crude oil rose Monday on new data which showed that manufacturing activity is expanding in both the United States and China and on a report from the National Association of Realtors that said pending home sales were up in September, raising hopes that fuel demand will rise.

At just a few minutes before the close of trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, December contracts for West Texas Intermediate had added 89 cents to $77.89 per barrel, while Brent crude was up $1.11 to $76.31 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex December gasoline futures were up 3 cents to $1.99 per gallon while December heating oil added 4 cents to $2.05 per gallon but December natural gas dropped 19 cents to $4.86 per million British thermal units.

Gold prices were higher Monday as the US dollar weakened and after it was revealed that business lender CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend, and even though investment demand for the precious metal was down.

December gold added $13.60 to $1,054 per troy ounce in New York after trading in a range that went as low as $1,042.20 and as high as $1,063.40 during the session.

Contracts for December silver were up 19 cents to $16.44 per troy ounce while January palladium added $11.80 to $1,338.10 per troy ounce and December palladium gained $3.10 to $326.35 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, December copper was down a cent to $2.95 per pound in New York trade but three-month contracts for copper on the London Metal Exchange added $70 to $6,550 per tonne on reports of expanded manufacturing activity in both the United States and China.

Aluminium and zinc prices were up as well and tin went untraded but its bids were up slightly, while lead and nickel prices fell on the session.

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