Commodities End Trading Just Higher; Crude Oil Still Below $

March 17, 2011

Commodities ended higher as both gold and crude oil futures managed to log gains for the day after a steep selloff in the prior session Light, sweet crude oil for April delivery finished up 0.8%, or $1.24 to $97.98 a barrel. In other energy futures, heating oil was up 1.31% to $3.05 a gallon while natural gas was down 0.15% to $3.93 per million British thermal units. Meanwhile, gold shares settled fractionally higher as the dollar also gained strength. Gold for April delivery finished up 0.2% to $1,396.10 an ounce. In other metal futures, silver was up 0.1% to $34.14 a troy ounce while copper traded up 1.09% to $4.18. The U.S. dollar index (DXY) is up 0.46% to $76.67.