Crude prices up; gold hits new record

The price of crude oil was up Tuesday as the US dollar weakened and several reports that manufacturing activity was up in both the US and China last month raised hopes that demand for oil and oil products could begin to improve soon.

January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude had added $1.57 to $78.85 per barrel at just before 1:30 p.m. local time on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while January Brent crude was up $1.20 to $79.67 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex January gasoline and heating oil futures were each up 4 cents, to $2.05 per gallon and $2.09 per gallon respectively, while January natural gas dropped 4 cents to $4.81 per million British thermal units.

Gains in global equities markets joined the weaker dollar in helping send prices higher for gold and other metals

Gold hit a new record in New York at $1,202.70 per troy ounce for December contracts before falling back to end $18 higher at $1,119.10 per troy ounce for December contracts, while February contracts jumped $17.90 to $1,200.20 per troy ounce.

Other precious metals saw price gains as March silver added 69 cents to $19.21 per troy ounce and January platinum was $26.40 higher to $1,486.60 per troy ounce, while in earlier trade in New York, March palladium had gained $17.20 to $383.40 per troy ounce by mid-morning.

Among base metals, March copper added 5 cents to $3.23 per pound in New York.

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