(09-22) 18:18 PDT -- The price of oil jumped $16.37 to $120.92 per barrel Monday, its biggest single-day gain ever, as investors spooked by the financial crisis sought a safe place to put their money.
At one point during Monday's wild trading session, the price of crude sold on the New York Mercantile Exchange soared as high as $130 per barrel, a whopping 24 percent increase from Friday's closing price.
Oil had been sliding since reaching its all-time high of $145.29 in July, and that decrease brought drivers some relief from this summer's punishing gasoline prices, which soared above $4 per gallon. But since bottoming out last Tuesday at $91.15 per barrel, oil's price has risen 32 percent.
Oil prices jump, partly from 'short squeeze'
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