Forexpros – Crude oil futures were up for a second day on Tuesday, climbing to a three-day high on hopes that euro zone policy makers will act to support the region’s struggling economy and provide a solution to the ongoing debt crisis in the single currency bloc.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded at USD82.53 a barrel during European morning trade, rallying 2.85%.
It earlier fell as much as 2.93% to trade at USD82.60 a barrel, the highest price since September 22.
Market sentiment was boosted amid speculation that the European Central Bank may ease monetary policy to help the euro zone economy after a senior bank official said Monday that a reduction in interest rates could not be ruled out.
Also supporting sentiment, a senior European Central Bank policymaker said the funds in the EUR440 billion European Financial Stability Facility could be used as collateral to borrow from the ECB, easing liquidity concerns.
The euro zone accounted for nearly 16% of global oil consumption in 2010, according to data from British Petroleum.
Markets were also awaiting fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products to gauge the strength of oil demand in the world’s largest oil consumer.
The American Petroleum Institute will release its inventories report later in the day, while Wednesday’s government report could show crude stockpiles rose by 2.2 million barrels last week, while gasoline supplies are forecast to rise by 1.0 million barrels.
Some mild bargain buying also lent support, after crude prices fell to a seven-week low of USD77.11 a barrel during the previous session
U.K.-based lender Barclays said in a report Monday that, “Much of the immediate action in oil is simply based on the same climate of economic fear that is battering all other asset classes, which then creates a cascading effect involving technical triggers, precipitous price falls and a disregard for the underlying fundamentals.”
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for November delivery climbed 1.66% to trade at USD105.67 a barrel, up USD23.14 a barrel on its U.S. counterpart.
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