Crude oil, metals prices start year with gains

Crude oil prices rose to begin the New Year on Monday, starting out at nearly twice its price at the beginning of last year on a weaker US dollar and on weather forecasts that say that the eastern half of the US will have colder than normal weather through the middle of January.

February contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were $2.15 higher to $81.51 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while February Brent crude added $1.95 to $79.88 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex February gasoline was up 5 cents to $2.10 per gallon, while February heating oil added 7 cents to $2.19 per gallon and March natural gas gained 31 cents to $5.84 per million British thermal units.\

Metals prices were also higher on the session.

Precious metals prices were higher as February gold added $22.10 to $1,118.30 per troy ounce in New York trade while March silver was up 62 cents to $17.46 per troy ounce and April platinum gained $52.90 to $1,523.90 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, March copper added 6 cents to $3.41 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper was up $125 to $7,500 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, but prices could have gone higher if LME-monitored inventories of the metal hadn’t gone higher again.

The price of nickel in London added $425 to $18,950 per tonne although inventories grew, while aluminium was up $36 to $2,266 per tonne with stockpiles lower but still near record highs.

Zinc was $10 higher to $2,570 per tonne while lead added $83 to $2,515 per tonne and tin gained $490 to $17,440 per tonne on the session.

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