03:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 03/25/2010 (MidnightTrader) — Commodities finished the day mixed, with gold futures closing in the black while oil dipped slightly lower.
Continuing fears over Greece’s debt crisis, combined with comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterating a low-interest rate monetary policy, helped gold prices stay higher.
Gold for April delivery rose $4.10 an ounce, or 0.4%, to $1,092.90 an ounce. In other metals, copper for May delivery rose to $3.3805 a pound, up $0.03 or 1% while silver futures were down 0.28%, or $0.04, to $16.59.
Meanwhile, Crude oil for May delivery finished down $0.08 at $80.43 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Providing additional support for commodities was a report from the U.S. government that jobless claims fell 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 442,000 in the latest week.
Natural gas prices sunk to record lows in the Thursday session. The Energy Information Administration reported U.S. natural gas supplies rose by 11 million cubic feet in the latest week, in line with the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
Natural gas for May delivery was down $0.13 cents, or 3.05%, at $3.98 per million British thermal units. Heating oil futures were down 0.10%, or $0.20, to $206.87.
In energy stocks, ConocoPhillips is making preparations to shut part of its Humber oil refinery, which is the U.K.’s third-largest, for maintenance, Bloomberg reported, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.
ConocoPhillips shares were down $0.57, or 1.09%, to $51.96.
Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil (XOM) and its partners in a Papua New Guinea gas project last year worth $15 billion paid the travel expenses for employees of the U.S. Export-Import Bank as it considered whether to help fund the venture, Bloomberg reported.
Exxon Mobil shares were up $0.02, or 0.03%, to $66.52 in late trading.
