Oil fell 12c to trade at $112.86 a barrel on Friday, dragged down from early gains by news that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may have been wounded and by the stronger dollar.
Oil prices have been on a roller coaster this month. Crude dropped $16 a barrel last week, and this week's trading featured swings of more than $11 between highs and lows.
Volume has surged over the past two weeks as the market digests a wide range of factors fogging the supply and demand outlook. These include the death of Osama bin Laden, changes in the monetary policy of big consumer nations, the impact of high fuel prices, and eurozone debt issues.
Soft commodity futures, pummeled by a broad sell-off for the second week in a row, calmed down on Friday although the trade was jittery as the market will be hit by further volatility in next week's action.
Prices were mixed with raw sugar futures clawing higher, bolstered by tight prompt Brazilian supplies. Coffee was mixed and cocoa dropped with the trade looking at the flow of cocoa exports from top producer Ivory Coast after a civil war in that country.
The gold price climbed to $1509.39/oz and silver rose as much as 5% to $35.61/oz on Friday, recovering some of this week's heavy losses, as a drop in the dollar encouraged a rebound in the beleaguered commodities complex. (See page 14.)
Precious metals prices were helped by a decline in the dollar on Friday, with the US unit slipping 0.3% against the euro.
Copper rose on Friday, moving further away from five-month lows recorded in the previous session as the dollar weakened, but investors remained cautious of a still volatile market. Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange was at $8885 a ton.
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