By Robert Daniel, MarketWatch
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Oil prices were gently higher in European trading hours on Tuesday.
Crude oil for November delivery CLX2 +0.13% rose 21 cents, or 0.2%, to $92.69 a barrel, after the commodity reached its highest settlement in over a week, at $92.48 a barrel, in New York on Monday.
Monday’s prices were backed by data showing a surprise expansion in U.S. manufacturing during September. Read: U.S. ISM manufacturing turns positive.
And crude maintained gains after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defending the agency’s policy of quantitative easing. Read: Bernanke defends QE3.
Natural gas for November delivery NGX12 +1.09% moved into a sixth straight day of gains, up 3 cents, or almost 1%, to $3.51 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas saw a fifth session of gains on Monday after weather reports forecast below-normal temperatures on the U.S. East Coast.
“Although partly due to seasonality, the uptick seems to contradict relatively bearish fundamentals in the market,” JBC Energy analysts said in a Tuesday report.
The report cited elevated inventories of gas; cheaper coal prompting a reversal of a first-half trend toward fuel switching; and higher U.S. production.
Heating oil for November HOX2 -0.06% was flat at $3.14 a gallon.
And gasoline for November RBX2 -0.92% was off 3 cents, or 0.9%, at $2.89 a gallon.
Robert Daniel is MarketWatch's Middle East bureau chief, based in Tel Aviv.
