Dollar loses ground and pumps up oil prices

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Oil prices rebounded from 17-month lows as stock markets rallied across the globe Wednesday.

Oil traders began placing bets that falling demand for crude may have already driven oil prices as low as they will go.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $5.18 to $67.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at $62.73 Tuesday, the lowest closing price since May 2007.

In a shift from the past several weeks, the government reported that crude and gasoline inventories were actually lower than expected, giving traders another reason to be bullish.

The Energy Information Administration's weekly report showed that inventories rose 500,000 barrels last week, a million fewer barrels than was expected by analysts surveyed by energy information provider Platts. Gasoline inventories decreased 1.5 million barrels last week, a surprise to analysts who predicted a build of 900,000 barrels.

The price of crude has been in a free fall, prompting OPEC to cut production by 1.5 million barrels a day.

Oil investors have recently looked to equity indexes as a barometer of global economic health. A rally that began with a nearly 900-point jump in the Dow Jones industrial average Tuesday spread to Asia, then Europe, and then back to the United States Thursday. The major indexes all rose at least 2 percent after the central bank announced it was lowering its fed funds rate to 1 percent, but a sell-off in the final minutes of trading pushed the Dow down about 100 points.

Oil trader and analyst Stephen Schork said oil prices rose because the dollar weakened. He cited the rate cut by the Federal Reserve and an oversold market for crude.

Investors often buy commodities such as crude oil as an inflation hedge when the dollar weakens and sell those investments when the greenback rises.

"Anyone who thinks a bottom is in, I'll sell them all the oil they want," Schork said.

Motorists, meanwhile, are continuing to get a break at the gas pump.

Retail prices fell 4 cents overnight to $2.589 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That is about 30 cents lower than prices were a year ago and well off the peak of $4.11 hit in July. Prices were even lower in some parts of the country. Gas stations in Cincinnati were selling gas for less that $2 per gallon this week.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 8 cents to settle at $1.53 a gallon, while heating oil gained 9 cents to settle at $2 a gallon. Natural gas for November delivery increased by 28 cents to settle at $6.47 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, December Brent crude rose $5.18 to settle at $65.47 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei index jumped 7.7 percent on Wednesday while Australia's key stock index rose 1.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrials were flat Wednesday heading up to the Fed announcement, a day after a stunning 889-point gain Tuesday. The 10.88 percent jump was the Dow's second-largest point gain, coming after the 936 points the Dow jumped on Oct. 13.

As the economic damage to the U.S. economy ripples through Europe, Asia, and now the Middle East, businesses and consumer have slashed energy consumption.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Oct. 24 was 3.4 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 8.9 million barrels a day, the Energy Department said.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 85.3 percent of total capacity on average, a gain of 0.5 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to rise 0.3 percentage point to 85.1 percent.