By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trading Tuesday, in line with moderately stronger regional equities and a slight rebound in the euro, shaking off euro-zone uncertainty that had weighed on commodities in the previous session. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at $96.37 a barrel at 0629 GMT, up $0.40 in the Globex electronic session. October Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.35 to $114.05 a barrel. "This summer's steady advance across the oil complex remains largely a supply-side story and has little to do with demand in our opinion," Jim Ritterbusch, of Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note. "But, as seen on so many occasions historically, weak structural demand won't necessarily preclude a strong market, particularly one fraught with politically related supply curtailments, crude pipeline disruptions and a slew of refinery glitches," he said. A combination of geopolitical tension, declining North Sea supply and refinery outages has pushed both benchmarks around 25% higher since mid-to-late June. This month alone, both West Texas Intermediate and Brent have gained nearly 10%. "Since these factors can only lend temporary support to the oil price and the oil market continues to exhibit a supply surplus, we regard the price increase as temporary and still expect to see a price level of $110 per barrel by year's end," analysts at Commerzbank said in a note. The bank expects the market to remain over-supplied if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, continues to produce over 31 million barrels a day. "In the short term, the price will remain supported by the supply shortfalls in the North Sea and the geopolitical risks," Commerzbank analysts said. Sentiment remains bullish among money managers, who for the third straight week were optimistic that Brent crude prices in the week ended Aug. 14 would rise, data from London's ICE Futures exchange showed late Monday. Money managers, including hedge funds, raised their net long positions, or bets that prices would rise, in Brent crude futures and options by 6.2% compared with the week before, to 96,614 contracts, the data showed. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for September--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 35 points to $3.0343 a gallon, while September heating oil traded at $3.0994, 63 points higher. ICE gasoil for September changed hands at $979.50 a metric ton, up $0.50 from Monday's settlement. Write to Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen at jacob.pedersen@dowjones.com

Source