Crude prices near $101 per barrel

New York -- Crude oil prices remained settled on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday morning after a two-week run bolstered by speculative investments.

Ebbing confidence in financial markets sent speculators to commodities. But the price of crude -- peaking at $111.80 per barrel on March 17 -- has subsided.

The price of crude gained marginally Tuesday morning on the exchange, up 15 cents, to $101.01 per barrel.

The price of heating oil was down 0.007 cents to $2.9561 per gallon.

The price of reformulated blendstock gasoline gained 0.0228 cents to $2.5664 per gallon.

The price of natural gas gained 0.027 cents to $9.356 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline dropped to $3.255 per gallon from Monday's price of $3.26 per gallon, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said. A year ago, the price of unleaded was $2.581 per gallon, the report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.