WTI Crude Holds Above $100 on U.S. Consumer Confidence

West Texas Intermediate crude settled above $100 for a fourth day this week on better-than-expected U.S. consumer confidence.

Prices gained 0.4 percent since Feb. 7, capping the longest stretch of weekly increases in more than a year. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of sentiment held at 81.2 this month, and supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York futures, slid to a three-month low. WTI was lower for most of the day after the Federal Reserve said factory production dropped the most since May 2009 in January.

WTI for March delivery dropped 5 cents to settle at $100.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices climbed to a four-month high of $100.37 on Feb. 12. Volume was 5.5 percent above the 100-day average at 3:29 p.m.

Nymex floor trading will be closed Feb. 17 for the U.S. Presidents Day holiday.

Brent for April settlement gained 56 cents, or 0.5 percent, to end the session at $109.08 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. Volume was 33 percent below 100-day average. The European benchmark crude was at premium of $8.95 a barrel to WTI for the same month. The spread settled at $8.38 yesterday, based on March prices.

(Source: Bloomberg)