The price of crude oil gained 2.4% in trading on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve announced plans to hold interest rates at current levels.  This in turn led to increased weakness in the U.S dollar, which is currently at a 30 day low.

Crude oil for April delivery is currently at $81.82 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Natural gas prices closed at their lowest level since November 19.  Natural gas for April delivery was  down 4.4 cents (1%) to $4.347 per million British thermal units in trading on the NYMEX.