Oil prices were sharply volatile entering the second quarter of 2009 and are likely to remain “within a rising trend,” said Paul Horsnell, managing director and head of commodities research at Barclays Capital Inc. in London.In an Apr. 1 report, Horsnell said after 5 successive days in which front-month benchmark US light, sweet crudes hit intraday highs of $54-55/bbl, prices then retrenched over the next 3 days to lows some $7/bbl below that. “That pattern has been symptomatic of trading over the past 4 months,” he said, “with cycles of higher prices being sold into on recurrent macroeconomic worries and weak data. Throughout those cycles, the tension betwee...