Oil Settles Nearly 5% Higher; Natural Gas Falls 3%

Oil futures settled with a nearly 5% gain on Thursday, as a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine eased worries over the potential for new sanctions over Russia. March crude rose $2.37, or 4.9%, to settle at $51.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural-gas prices fell 3%, however, after U.S. government data showed a weekly decline in natural-gas supplies that was less than expected. March natural gas fell 8.4 cents to end at $2.713 per million British thermal units.