Heating oil inches higher as crude climbs

21 July 2010

Written by Bob Burton

Heating oil prices climbed moderately on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (July 21st), tracking gains in crude futures.

Oil was lifted yesterday by the latest demand report from the American Petroleum Institute, which showed a fall in fuel inventories in the US last week.

However, a stronger performance in US equities markets also helped to strengthen demand for fuels, with Apple's latest earnings report providing a foundation for yesterday's stock-market rally.

Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, told Bloomberg that the US reporting season is looking "better than expected".

"The earnings season seems favorable, except for a few disappointments from Goldman and IBM," said Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst at ANZ, speaking to Reuters.

At 02:55 Central Standard Time, the August-delivery heating oil contract was up nearly a cent at $2.0346 a gallon, while crude was near $78 a barrel.