Crude oil edges lower on Greece fears Commodities and gold markets, which had a roller-coaster ride after Friday's stronger than expected US employment figures, lost ground on fears over a possible Greek default, with crude oil and industrial metals giving up earlier gains and gold extending its losses. Investors pared down their positions as talks over Greece's second bail-out plan continued. ICE March Brent, which jumped 2.2 per cent on Friday to $114.58 a barrel, rallied further in early Monday trading, hitting a high of $115.38. However, the global oil benchmark later succumbed to profit-taking and was down 51 cents at $114.07 a barrel in London morning trading. Nymex March West Texas Intermediate on the other hand has traded in a narrow band, and was down $1 a barrel at $96.84. The relative strength of Brent has meant that the WTI-Brent price differential widened further. The spread, which traded at about $12 a barrel at the start of last week, was more than $17 on Monday. Gold, which lost ground on the US labour numbers last week, continued its fall, edging down 0.6 per cent at $1,714.89 a troy ounce. The strong employment figures damped hopes of further monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve, hitting gold prices, which had been rallying over the past few weeks on the back of expectations of further liquidity injections. Edel Tully, precious metals strategist at UBS, a leading bullion dealer, said that Friday's employment data alone was not enough "to completely reverse the impact of the recent Federal Open Markets Committee statement and prompt investors to materially scale back hopes for balance sheet expansion." However, all eyes are on whether investors will find the fall in gold prices a reason to buy, or sell further to "$1670, the area where it broke out from after the FOMC meeting" she added. Industrial metals were lower on profit-taking. Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange fell 1.3 per cent to $8,480 a tonne, and aluminium was down 1.3 per cent at $2,226 a tonne. Zinc, however, found support, edging up 0.3 per cent to $2,144 a tonne.