Crude ends higher

Prices rise as traders smell faster global recovery

Crude prices ended modestly higher on Monday, 08 March 2010. Prices rose on anticipation of global recovery in the coming month. But prices ended off their session highs. Prices pared gains partly as the dollar was lifted up later in the day.

On Monday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for April delivery closed at $81.87/barrel (higher by $0.37 or 0.4%). Prices rose to a high of $82.47 during intra day trading. Prices gained 2% last week.

Crude prices rose 9.3% in February as supply-and-demand issues began to take hold in a market for months dominated by moves in the dollar. Prices have ranged between $69 and $84 a barrel since October.

In the currency market on Monday, the dollar had been down roughly 0.4% at its session low earlier in the day but it ended the day with a 0.4% gain. The dollar earlier fell against the euro after French President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated over the weekend that Greece's euro-zone partners stood ready to provide help if needed to avoid a default.

Among other energy products on Monday, gasoline for April delivery rose 1.9 cents to $2.29 a gallon, while heating oil for the same month rose to $2.11 a gallon from $2.10 a gallon.

Also on Monday, natural gas for April delivery fell 6.6 cents, or 1.4%, to $4.53 per million British thermal units.

Crude ended FY 2009 higher by 78%, the highest yearly gain since 1999. It reached a high of $82 earlier in October 2009 and hit a low of $33.98 on 12 February 2009. Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 45% since then. Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.