Crude-oil futures added one more U.S. dollar to their per-barrel value in Asia amid rising hopes of quantitative easing announced by the U.S. Federal Reserve and after seeing a major slump in dollar value.
Light, sweet crude futures for November delivery traded at $83.99 a barrel at 0655 GMT on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 98 cents from their day-earlier price in the Globex electronic session. There was a brief period when they rose to $84.10 a barrel but they quickly dropped to the previous trading rate.
Brent crude for November delivery gained up to 80 cents on London's ICE Futures exchange to trade at $85.44 a barrel.
Asian stock markets rallied as commodity prices surged and the dollar also took a beating as the Monetary Authority of Singapore decided to squeeze its monetary policy; it all fared well for the oil.
U.S. oil inventory data from the Energy Information Administration will be released later today and is expected to affect the oil futures. Crude-oil stockpiles are expected to have risen by 1.2 million barrels in the week to Oct. 8, with gasoline inventories seeing a slump of 1.4 million barrels in the same period.
OPEC oil ministers will be meeting today but there is a consensus to keep the production and the prices at their current levels.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for November delivery surged 150 points to close at $2.1811 a gallon, and the November heating oil traded at $2.3216, which is 209 points higher than its previous price.
ICE gasoil for November delivery traded at $729.00 a metric ton, an improvement of $3.50 from Wednesday's trade rate.
