Heating oil up in morning trade

26 April 2010

Written by John King

Heating oil prices climbed in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (April 26th), supported by a raft of strong economic data from the US.

While manufacturing output and home sales figures boosted buying activity this morning, traders were also looking ahead to the publication of the latest consumer confidence figures tomorrow.

The Federal Reserve will also make its monthly policy statement tomorrow, with widespread expectations of an interest rate hold.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Serene Lim, an energy commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in Singapore, commented: "People are becoming more bullish on oil demand growth. The more positive world economic data, especially in the U.S. data, is bringing about more optimism."

By 02:40 Central Standard Time, the May-delivery heating oil contract was trading at $2.2635, up 1.3 cents on Friday's closing price. Crude was also up and was trading above $85 a barrel by the time European markets opened.

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