Oil prices rose above $53 a barrel Thursday as encouraging U.S. data on durable goods orders and home sales spurred hopes for a recovery in crude demand.
Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 73 cents to $53.50 a barrel by midday in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In London, Brent prices rose 96 cents to $52.71 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Gains in global stock markets also supported oil prices, and the uptick in sentiment appeared to be enough to temper concerns over sharply accumulating inventories in the U.S., although analysts warned this may not last.
"Without the continued support of equities, crude oil should have more difficulties to move above the $55-a-barrel mark as the fundamentals are not yet providing enough evidence of a tightening market," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland.
"We could see today the rally go slightly higher from here on yesterday's figures," said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of sales trading at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. "You have a little modest rally in Asia on the back of that, and that's sort of helping crude a bit."
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for April delivery gained 0.95 cent to $1.5045 a gallon, while heating oil rose 1.19 cents to $1.4766. Natural gas for April delivery advanced 0.7 cent to $4.336 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Associated Press writer Tomoko A. Hosaka in Tokyo contributed to this report. more...
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