News drives gains, declines in oil prices

Crude oil prices were slightly higher in early afternoon trade in New York Monday after bouncing in and out of gains all morning.

At 1 p.m. in New York, September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude had added a cent to $78.99 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude was up 8 cents to $77.53 per barrel at last report on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

The gains came as equities markets advanced on optimism after most European banks passed stress tests last week, while a bigger than anticipated increase in new home sales in the US in June also helped sentiment.

Earlier declines had to do with the failure of Tropical Storm Bonnie to do major damage to oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico or along the US Gulf Coast.

Still, Nymex August gasoline futures had dropped a cent to $2.11 per gallon and August heating oil futures were down less than a cent to $2.04 per gallon, but natural gas futures had added 4 cents to $4.62 per million British thermal units.

The retail price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was up overnight to $2.742 per gallon on average nationally in the United States.