Oil prices reached a fresh one-year high near $US76 a barrel on Thursday in Asia on a weaker US dollar and growing investor optimism about an economic recovery.
Benchmark crude for November delivery was up 72 cents to $US75.90, the highest since October 2008, by midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $US1.03 to settle at $US75.18 on Wednesday.
In London, Brent crude rose 54 cents to $US73.64 on the ICE Futures exchange.
Oil investors have fed off rising stock markets and a falling dollar this week to break out of a $US65 to $US75 trading range that has held since May. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.5 per cent Wednesday to above 10,000 for the first time in a year on encouraging earnings reports from Intel Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Most Asian stock indexes gained in early trading.
Meanwhile, the euro rose to $US1.495 in early Asian trading from $US1.4933 the previous day while the dollar gained to Y89.46 from 89.34. Oil is traded in US dollars and its price tends to rise when the dollar falls.
‘‘There’s a perception that the economy is getting stronger and the dollar is getting weaker,’’ said Gerard Rigby, an energy analyst with Fuel First Consulting in Sydney. ‘‘But we haven’t seen a real improvement in demand just yet.’’
US oil inventories fell unexpectedly last week, the American Petroleum Institute said late on Wednesday. Crude stocks dropped 172,000 barrels while analysts had expected a jump of 2.2 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
AP
