Crude Oil Posts Gains For Fourth Straight Week

July 21, 2011, 6:19 am

22-Jul-11 15:30 ET Dow -52.22 at 12672.19, Nasdaq +25.66 at 2860.09, S&P +0.94 at 1344.74

Precious metals moved higher on the flight to safety, once again, aided by lingering questions about how the situation in Europe will play out, as well as concerns about how the debt negotiations are going in the US. Gold traded to highs, at $1607.70, early in the session, but spent the remainder of the day pulling back slowly from those highs. Silver had a similar pattern of trade, notching highs at $40.30 in mid-morning trade before pulling back throughout the remainder of the day. August gold finished higher by 0.9% to $1601.30 per ounce, while Sept silver gained 2.9% to finish at $40.08 per ounce.

Sept crude oil settled higher by 0.8% to $9.87. Crude oil futures spent the session rallying off their lows, at $98.43, and eventually traded back above the $100 level where they put in highs at $100.19 per barrel. On the week, crude rallied for 2.7%, and posted gains for the fourth week in a row. Aug natural gas finished near flat at $4.39 per MMBtu.

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