Heating oil prices above $2.10

8 March 2010

Written by John King

Heating oil prices were up during the electronic trading session of the New York Mercantile Exchange of this morning (March 8th), while crude pushed above $82 (€60) a barrel.

As European markets opened for trading, near-term heating oil contracts were above $2.10 a gallon and continuing to climb.

Both commodities climbed ahead of macroeconomic data which is expected to show further signs of recovery in the US, while a weaker dollar also made commodities more attractive to foreign buyers.

Tomokazu Amano, analyst at Mitsubishi Corp Futures & Securities in Tokyo, told Reuters: "In the past few days, market moves have been led by technicals. Now that $80 or higher is here to stay, we are seeing an influx of speculative money from funds and others."

Crude and heating oil prices are now touching their highest level seen this year, although both commodities are substantially lower than the record highs achieved during the 2008 oil price spike, when crude hit $147 a barrel and heating oil prices pushed through $4 a gallon.

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