The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Oil prices rose above $104 a barrel Thursday after the U.S. central bank boosted its outlook for economic growth and employment this year.
Benchmark oil for June delivery gained 60 cents to $104.72 a barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 57 cents to settle at $104.12 in New York on Wednesday.
Brent crude for June delivery was up 82 cents at $119.94 per barrel in London.
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it expects the U.S. economy to grow between 2.4 percent and 2.9 percent in 2012. That's up from a January forecast of 2.2 percent to 2.7 percent growth.
The Fed also expects the unemployment rate to drop to between 7.8 percent and 8 percent by the end of the year. The rate is currently 8.2 percent.
Oil prices have hovered between $102 and $104 in low trading volume most of this month as traders wait for more clarity on Europe's debt crisis and the conflict over Iran's nuclear program.
"The oil market continues to be very quiet," Barclays Capital said in a report. "Most market participants are on hold, looking for some trigger."
In other energy trading, natural gas futures were rising off 10-year lows Thursday as U.S. drillers cut production in response to lower prices and utilities use more of the cheap fuel to generate electricity.
The U.S. government reported Thursday that natural gas in storage rose by 47 billion cubic feet to 2.548 trillion cubic feet for the week ended April 20. That was in line with what analysts expected, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. It matches the five-year average rise in inventories for this time of year.
Natural gas rose to $2.135 per thousand cubic feet, a gain of 3.2 percent.
Gasoline for May delivery added 1 cent to $3.17 a gallon. May heating oil rose 4 cents to $3.20 a gallon.
