Oil Rises Over $49 a Barrel
Crude oil closed at more than $49 for a second straight day Wednesday and has risen $9 from the beginning of March, Bloomberg reported.
Benchmark light sweet crude futures gained 25 cents to close at $49.41 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said.
The gain was attributed in part to action by the Federal Reserve Wednesday, in which the Fed held interest rates near historic lows and said it will buy back about $750 billion in mortgage securities and $300 in long-term government bonds, Bloomberg reported.
The increase also followed a Department of Energy report Wednesday that showed crude inventories rose almost 2 million barrels last week.
Oil had closed at $40.15 on March 2, but the price is near $100 below last July’s record closing price of $145.29 a barrel.
