HOUSTON -- Oil prices approached $75 a barrel Monday for the first time in 10 months amid growing optimism that the world's economies are on the mend.
Benchmark crude for October delivery rose 48 cents to settle at $74.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil last topped $75 in October and on Monday, prices came within 19 cents of that mark.
Natural gas rebounded strongly from new seven-year lows Monday, yet still traded below $3 per 1,000 cubic feet because of a huge glut and very little demand from major industrial customers.
Expectations that demand for energy will grow, at least for oil and gasoline, were spurred Friday by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said the U.S. economy is reviving. Bernanke's remarks and signs of improvement in the U.S. housing market sent stock markets higher, and that carried over into the new week.
Even before Bernanke spoke, however, prices already had begun to rise on a large and unexpected drawdown in U.S. oil supplies. One factor that might be keeping crude below $75 is the possibility that last week's storage report was an aberration, given that demand now remains weak.
Equity and energy markets have been rising and falling in tandem for weeks and at the start of this week, it was more of the same. Asian and European markets climbed Monday, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose moderately in afternoon trading.
It's been slightly more than a year since a barrel of crude soared close to $150 a barrel, a level not expected anytime soon.
Still, in a report Monday, trader and analyst Stephen Schork said once oil gets to $75, "there is not a hell of a lot to prevent it from going to $80 or $85."
