Crude tops $89 a barrel; natural gas rallies toward $4 level By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch U.S. shares wavered between small gains and losses Tuesday. Wobbly equities didn’t prevent “a much calmer day” in the markets, one on which most commodities benefitted, said Bill O’Neill, a principal at Logic Advisors in New Jersey. Earlier Tuesday, the IEA issued its monthly outlook report in which it cut expectations for oil demand this year and the next, citing a deteriorating global economy. The agency also said oil from Libya will be slow to return to markets. Read more the IEA report. The agency also lowered its expectations for supplies outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Traders are waiting to hear from the American Petroleum Institute, slated to report its weekly supply update at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. The report is followed by more closely watched, official data from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. Other energy products traded mixed, with natural gas posting gains but gasoline and heating oil heading lower. October gasoline RB1V +0.17% declined less than a penny, or 0.1%, to $2.74 a gallon. October natural gas NG11V +2.73% added 11 cents, or 2.8%, to $3.99 per million British thermal units. Heating oil for the same month HO1V -0.44% , however, declined 2 cents, or 0.6%, to $2.93 per gallon. SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures extended gains Tuesday, ahead of the week’s first data on inventories and as most commodities basked in buying interest. Crude for October delivery CL1V +1.23% rose 80 cents, or 0.9%, to $89.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gain builds on a 1.1% increase on Monday. U.S. stocks got a late-hour boost from reports saying the Chinese were readying a plan to buy Italian bonds. Chinese authorities have denied such reports. Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.

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