Crude oil rose above $58 a barrel for the first time this year on speculation that the banking crisis and worldwide recession are ending, stoking demand for energy. Oil traded at the highest price since November as equities rose in anticipation of a “reassuring” report later today from U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on banks’ ability to bear economic stress. Crude extended yesterday’s gains on reports showing that the U.S. companies cut fewer jobs in April and China’s economy performed better than estimated. “The oil price is moving up in association with equities, which are pricing in a more benign environment over the next six, nine months,” said Gareth Lewis-Davies, oil market analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort in London. “The bank stress tests feed into the idea of green shoots of recovery being seen.” Crude oil for June delivery rose as much as $1.73, or 3 percent, to $58.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest intraday price since Nov. 17. It was at $57.97 a barrel at 12:30 p.m. London time. Prices have gained 13 percent this week, heading for the biggest weekly gain since February. U.S. refineries boosted operating rates last week to their highest level since December, the Energy Department said yesterday, and crude stockpiles increased less than analysts had estimated. U.S. refiners operated at 85.3 percent of capacity in the week ended May 1, up 2.7 percentage points from the week before, the Energy Department report showed. Crude inventories rose by 605,000 barrels last week, versus analysts’ forecasts for a gain of 2.5 million barrels. Early Ending “The market is thinking the recession will end earlier than was expected a few months ago,” said Hannes Loacker, an analyst at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich in Vienna. “It looks like prices will continue to increase, but I don’t see crude above $60 in the short term.” Gasoline supplies fell 167,000 barrels to 212.4 million in the week ended May 1, the Energy Department report showed. A 550,000-barrel gain was forecast, according to the median of 16 analyst responses in the Bloomberg News survey. Still, the increase in U.S. crude supplies brought inventories to 375.3 million barrels last week, the highest since 1990. “Demand is still weak,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, senior oil market analyst at BNP Paribas SA in London. “The market is indeed shrugging the bearish fundamentals and may rather be taking heart from the reassuring comments from Treasury Secretary Geithner,” Breaking Resistance Crude has broken through the $55.02 to $56.10 a barrel range that technical analysts at Barclays Capital said could trigger a move to $62. Prices may now surge to $71.55 by completing an inverted “head and shoulders” formation that started in December, according to a report by the bank. Brent crude oil for June settlement rose as much as $1.63, or 2.9 percent, to $57.78 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. That’s the highest intraday price since Jan. 7. It was at $57.60 a barrel at 12:30 p.m. London time. The MSCI World Index climbed 1.3 percent to 946.69 at 12:03 p.m. in London, a four-month high. The gauge of 23 developed nations has rebounded 37 percent since March 9 on optimism the U.S. government’s plan to finance the purchase of illiquid assets from banks will help to pull the global economy out of its first recession since World War II. China’s central bank said yesterday that the country’s economy performed better than estimated in the first quarter. In the U.S., ADP Employer Services said companies eliminated 491,000 positions last month, less than the 645,000 estimated in a Bloomberg News Survey of economists. “The outlook for an imminent economic recovery and the apparently satisfactory outcome of the U.S. bank stress tests, details of which will be released today, broadly support the commodity markets.”

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