Oil Extends Climb; Gold Prices Fall

Crude oil prices soared yet again Friday amid continued supply worries, while gold took another beating.

Front-month contracts for light sweet crude were tacking on $1.08 at $124.77 a barrel in recent activity on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the price hit an all-time high of $126.20 a barrel before pulling back.

"Medium and long-term perceptions of the tightness of oil market balances have worsened," writes the London-based commodities team at Barclays in a recent research report. There has been, "persistently disappointing non-OPEC performance so far in 2008, as well as supply disruptions in various locations, not least Nigeria," the report continues. ...