Crude oil prices fall as Libya's civil war seems to be ending

@bp_nzJane

Crude oil prices fall as Libya's civil war seems to be ending bit.ly/pcF3Q5

Stock markets rebounded today as investors snapped up shares after recent selling made them look attractive, while Brent crude prices slipped on prospects Libya's civil war will soon end. 
    
Even as investors waded into riskier markets after a very tough August, traditional safe-haven gold hit a third consecutive all-time high near $US1,900 after staging its biggest weekly gain in 2-1/2 years last week.  

Speculation that the Federal Reserve could take new measures to boost the US economy helped support Wall Street stocks and gold after four weeks of losses but weighed on US bond prices.  

Talk of possible new Fed stimulus follows weeks of market turmoil and persistent worries that the United States may fall back into recession. The threat that sovereign debt problems in euro zone peripheral countries could spread to the larger economies also contributed to volatility.  

"The Fed is definitely on people's minds, and you could argue that some of the bounce seen in high-yield commodity currencies is at least in part related to hopes for more policy measures," said Wells Fargo strategist Vassili Serebriakov in New York.