Commodities Prices Mixed

Commodities prices were mixed in New York early Friday, but both the gains and the losses were limited among metals and energy futures.

The April contract for crude oil was down 11 cents at $61.53 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange, and natural gas was easing less than a cent to $7.24 per million British thermal units.

Heating oil was fractionally off at $1.76 a gallon, and reformulated gasoline was tacking on 1 cent to $1.94 a gallon.

Gold rose $3.20 to $658.70 an ounce, and silver was climbing 4 cents to $13.16 an ounce. Copper was weaker, ticking down 2 cents to $2.81 a pound. Platinum lost $2.50 to $1,212 an ounce.

At the New York Board of Trade, sugar was slightly stronger. Coffee, cotton and frozen concentrated orange juice futures fell.