Oil futures prices extended their climb in early trading Monday, with
Nymex futures rising above $95 a barrel for the first time since Aug. 2 as
crude's one-month bull run kept up momentum.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery was up $1.23, or 1.3%, at $95.49 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE Futures
Europe exchange was up $2.45, or 2.2%, at $114.42 a barrel.
"The market continues to show some resilience here," Tradition Energy
broker and analyst Gene McGillian said. "There's not enough negative
information to drive it back from the three-month highs. The fact is, the
market has had an upward bias since we held $90 [a barrel] last week ...While
there's a cloud over the market, it seems to be pointed higher."
Though the governments of
Greece
--and
possibly
Italy
--were
remaking themselves in the latest drama over the euro-zone debt crisis, the
markets viewed the events as potentially helpful to resolve the prolonged
uncertainty over the credit crisis.
"This morning, prices have received a strong boost with the positive steps
taken in
Greece
towards resolving its debt crisis," Barclays Capital said in a research
note. "Oil, like most markets, continues to trade in a maelstrom of
information where any headline is immediately subjected to opposite and contradictory
interpretations, with unpredictable consequences for prices. However, once
again, what does stand out in the oil market is the urge for prices to
constantly break higher."
Analysts and traders said crude appears to have taken on momentum of its own
since a bull run has added about $20 to the barrel price in the last month. Though
retail demand for gasoline and other finished petroleum products remains low,
supplies have also dropped, putting the market into a bullish condition that
suggests a supply-demand squeeze.
"The magnitude of last month's crude price pop of almost $20 a barrel
amidst what appeared to be further economic deterioration across the euro zone
attests to a market that is experiencing some shift in supply/usage
balances," research firm Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note.
Front-month December reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, gained 6.36
cents to $2.7270 a gallon. December heating oil rose 5.91 cents to $3.1298 a gallon.