SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Crude oil futures spiked 2% to above $53 a barrel Monday in Asia as regional share markets extended their recent rally on Wall Street's cue Friday, bolstering perceptions of the outlook for the global economy.
With the dollar also slipping against the euro, oil traders were encouraged to further bid up contracts.
"Traders followed the momentum higher," said Peter Beutel, president at trading advisory firm Cameron Hanover.
"Prices have been advancing, more or less, for seven weeks, and traders seem to have bought into economically vague but hopeful events - a weaker U.S. dollar, higher equities and the seasonal tendency of prices to advance at this time of year."
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude for delivery in May traded at $53.32 a barrel at 0655 GMT, up 81 cents or 1.5% in the Globex electronic session.
Nymex heating oil for May rose 172 points to 146.32 cents a gallon, while May reformulated gasoline blendstock traded at 151.69 cents, 245 points higher.
Nymex crude slipped 13 cents Friday partly after the U.S. Labor Department reported the country's jobless rate hitting 8.5% in March - the most severe unemployment figure in 25 years.
Still, the market managed to rise for a seventh straight week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 8,000 points.
"Oil markets are likely to keep (their) eyes on the dollar, equities and on their own fundamentals this week," said Beutel, adding trading volumes may dwindle ahead of a U.S. public holiday Friday.
However, some oil analysts - while conceding to the likelihood of a further technical or chart-driven advance to the $55-a-barrel area - urged caution, noting the market's fundamentals remained weak.
With U.S. crude stockpiles at a 16-year high of 359.4 million barrels, the front end of the oil price curve is likely to stay under pressure, according to Jim Ritterbusch at Ritterbusch and Associates.
"An economic anomaly has been developing in which crude stocks are mounting amidst rising crude prices. This largely reflects an influx of institutional or hedge fund capital into the long side of the forward contracts rather than the nearby crude futures," he said in a note to clients.
"With the spread carrying charges widening, the odds of further price gains become highly unlikely."
At 0655 GMT, oil prices on London's ICE Futures exchange also climbed.
May Brent crude rose 63 cents to $54.10 a barrel, while gasoil for April traded at $461 a metric ton, chalking up $17.50 from Friday's settlement.
