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SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose above $80 a barrel Monday in Asia as crude traders followed regional stock markets higher.
Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 56 cents to $80.22 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $1.49 to settle at $79.66.
Oil traders, who often look to equities as a measure of overall investor sentiment, were cheered by a jump in all the major Asian stock indexes Monday amid recent signs that Asian manufacturing is recovering from last year's slump.
This week, investors will be eyeing U.S. jobs data to get a better sense of the recovery in the world's largest economy. The Labor Department is scheduled to announce February's unemployment rate on Friday. Joblessness was 9.7 percent in January.
Oil prices have touched the low $80 level several times in the last six months, but fallen back into the $70s when U.S. crude inventory data failed to justify investor optimism.
In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil rose 1.57 cents to $2.051 a gallon, and gasoline gained 1.48 cents at $2.203 a gallon. Natural gas prices fell 4.7 cents to $4.766 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude was up 54 cents at $78.13 on the ICE futures exchange.
