Crude oil futures jumped to the highest level in more than a week on Monday as the dollar weakened against major currencies.

Crude oil for March delivery rose $1.31 to settle at $97.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The price gap between the New York and European crude benchmarks stood at $23.18 on Friday, the biggest gap in nearly three months. However the prices gap started to shrink as Brent crude prices fell 0.7%.

On the ICE futures exchange Brent crude settled down 77 cents at $118.13 a barrel, reducing the price gap to $21.10.

Markets have been betting that the price gap between the two benchmarks will widen, with Brent taking the lead.

Nymex has been under pressure since the start of February on concern about supply problems with the key Seaway pipeline.

Among precious metals gold futures settled at a five-week low on Monday, skidding below $1,650 an ounce.

Gold for April delivery tumbled $17.80 to settle at $1,649.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.




CJ

Related share prices