Crude oil prices were up again Thursday, but gains were much smaller than those Wednesday.

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery added 65 cents to $97.81 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while November contracts for Brent crude gained 37 cents to $95.21 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex October natural gas futures were down 31 cents to $7.60 per million British thermal units, while Nymex October gasoline added 2 cents to $2.48 per gallon.

News of new attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria worked to push prices higher, but fears of more declines in demand and new data showing that US natural gas stockpiles grew more than expected last week tended to work to send prices lower.

Precious metals prices were higher on the search for safe places for investors to put their money amid continuing worries over failures in the financial sector.

December gold was above $900 per troy ounce for a time during the session but ended up $46.50 to $897 per troy ounce, while December silver jumped $1.03 to $12.70 per troy ounce, October platinum was up $51.30 to $1,137.60 per troy ounce, and December palladium gained $12.35 to $239.45 per troy ounce in New York.

Meanwhile, among base metals, December copper added 2 cents to $3.07 per pound in New York.

Grains prices fell on the Chicago Board of Trade.

CBOT November soybeans were 23 cents lower to $11.16 per bushel while December corn fell 26 cents to $5.27 per bushel and December wheat dropped 33 cents to $6.92 per bushel.

By Elaine Frei  (Investment Markets)