Investing.com - Oil prices shot up in U.S. trading on Tuesday on what investors saw were better-than-expected durable goods orders.
Solid home pricing data fueled the rally as well, though investors shrugged off weak home sales figures.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded up 1.02% at USD95.78 a barrel on Tuesday, off from a session high of USD95.93 and up from an earlier session low of USD94.54.
Orders for durable goods came in mixed though energy market participants interpreted the data as another sign that the U.S. economy continues to make fundamental improvements.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported earlier that core durable goods orders fell 0.5% in February from January, defying expectations for a 0.5% rise and well below a 2.9% increase the previous month.
However, overall durable goods orders, which include transportation items, jumped up 5.7% last month, well beyond market calls for a 3.8% increase, following a 3.8% decline in January, which sent oil prices rising despite spotty consumer confidence data.
The Conference Board reported earlier that its index of consumer confidence fell unexpectedly in March, dropping to 59.7 from February's 68.0 reading.
Analysts were expecting the index to remain unchanged in March.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that new home sales in the U.S. came in at 411,000 in February, missing expectations for a gain of 422,000 units sold and well below a 431,000 rise in January.
Home prices, however, continue to improve, which gave oil support on the notion that a more robust U.S. economy will demand more energy and fuels going forward.
The Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller composite 20-city home price index rose by 8.1% in January after gaining 6.8% in December, beating expectations for a rise by 7.9%.
Elsewhere on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for May delivery were up 0.34% at USD108.53 a barrel, up USD12.75 from its U.S. counterpart.
Investing.com - Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the Forex, Commodities, Futures and the Stock Market including real-time data streaming, a comprehensive economic calendar, as well as financial news and technical & fundamental analysis by in-house experts.
Read more News on Investing.com or Follow us on Twitter at @ Newsinvesting
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
