Crude oil rose to the highest level in more than two weeks after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the bank will delay its withdrawal of stimulus measures and after U.S. retailers reported that sales topped projections. Oil climbed as much as 0.7 percent and the dollar dropped against the euro after Trichet said the ECB will keep mopping up extra liquidity from its bond purchases. November retail comparable store sales rose 5.3 percent, compared with a 3.5 percent estimate, Retail Metrics Inc. president Ken Perkins said in an interview. “The dollar’s drop is giving the market support,” said Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover Inc., a trading- advisory company in New Canaan, Connecticut. “There’s an inverse correlation between the dollar and oil, and we’re seeing it at work today.” Crude oil for January delivery rose 46 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $87.21 a barrel at 10:28 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices touched $87.37, the highest level since Nov. 12. Brent crude oil for January settlement increased 77 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $89.64 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract touched $89.81, the highest level since Oct. 3, 2008. Nymex prices also gained as cold weather bolstered heating- fuel consumption and disrupted transportation in Europe. In the U.K., the earliest widespread snowfall since 1993 has frozen over roads, disrupting traffic, with cold weather likely to last until at least Dec. 8, according to private forecaster British Weather Services. Top of Range “We seem to be close to the top of the trading range, so we’ll need something new to push oil through $90 and cold weather may not be enough,” said Christopher Bellew, senior broker at Bache Commodities Ltd. in London. The discount between Nymex oil and London’s Brent rose after an Energy Department report yesterday showed that crude- oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York futures, climbed 910,000 barrels to 34.5 million. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

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