By Jerry A. DiColo Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Crude futures pushed higher Tuesday, as the market looks toward rising equities markets as it again approaches $80 a barrel. Light, sweet crude for September delivery recently traded 47 cents, or 0.6%, at $79.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded 47 cents higher at $77.97 a barrel. The tepid gains come a day after futures traded exactly flat, the first time in more than a year that crude failed to move even 1 cent. Conflicting economic data and a quick end to Tropical Storm Bonnie in the Gulf of Mexico left traders idling ahead of oil inventory data from the Department of Energy due 10:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday. But rising equities, which have led oil for several weeks, helped push crude slightly higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday pushed into positive territory for the year, closing up 100.81 points, or 1%, to 10,525.43. Futures were recently trading up 59 points, suggesting a higher opening. "These are the dog days of summer. Everybody is taking a pause and waiting to see what the next big thing is," said Carl Larry of Oil Outlook and Opinions. "Until we see the next big storm, or the next sign of economic recovery, or the next political disruption, we are just biding our time." Futures remain stuck in a range between $70 and $80 a barrel, though crude has recently aimed at breaking through the top end of the range. Still, high inventory levels and tepid data on the state of the economic recovery have made $80 a barrel a level of strong resistance. Meanwhile, the crude market is looking to data from the Energy Information Administration to gauge whether the U.S. continues to have oil stockpiles that are well above average. The EIA is expected to show crude stockpiles falling by 1.4 million barrels, according to the mean of six analysts' forecasts in a Dow Jones Newswires survey. Gasoline inventories are seen rising by 600,000 barrels, according to the analysts' average. Stocks of distillate, which includes heating oil and diesel, are expected to rise by 1.9 million barrels. "Until these (data) are released, we don't think markets will do all that much," MF Global analyst Edward Meir wrote in a note to clients. Front-month August reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, recently traded 0.57 cent, or 0.3%, higher at $2.1115 a gallon. August heating oil recently traded 1.63, or 0.8%, higher at $2.0589 a gallon. -By Jerry A. DiColo, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2155; jerry.dicolo@dowjones.com

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