The price of crude oil was hovering above the $78 mark Tuesday morning after briefly breaking above a five-week high in very early dealing.
NYMEX Light Sweet Crude oil (WTI) futures for February 2010 was down a marginal $0.10 to $78.61 on Tuesday, after hitting the session's high of $78.77.
Oil has been making a comeback of late after dropping below $70 earlier this month, supported by dwindling crude stockpiles and speculation that demand will pick up as the economy continues to heal.
The U.S. Energy Department will release its final weekly report of 2009 on Wednesday. Consensus estimates suggest crude oil inventories declined 2.2 million barrels from 327.5 million the prior week.
Last week, the U.S. Energy Department said that crude inventories fell 4.9 million barrels as against the widely expected 2.0 million barrels drop.
OPEC's recent decision to leave its output level unchanged has also generated buying interest
Furthermore, unrest in Iran and cold weather in the U.S., which would increase the consumption of this energy product substantially, are acting as positive catalysts.
Some of today's trading action may be guided by the Conference Board's consumer confidence report for December, which is set to be made public at 10:00 a.m. ET.
Nonetheless, trading activity is likely to remain relatively subdued for the rest of the week amid another holiday-shortened week due to the New Year's Day holiday this Friday.
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