Oil up a 4th straight session to settle at highest price in over 9 months – MarketWatch

Oil futures on Thursday stretched their gains to a fourth straight session, as signs of progress toward another round of economic relief by U.S. lawmakers helped to keep prices at their highest levels in more than nine months.

Crude prices have been unstoppable the last several weeks as vaccine rollouts begin, oil inventories are starting to come down, Asian demand remains robust, and the dollar slide propels commodities higher across the board, Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said in a market update.

If Congress can get a virus relief bill done this week, that might be the last catalyst needed to help WTI crude make a run towards the $50 level, he said.

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery CL.1, +0.10% CLF21, +0.10% rose 54 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $48.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, for the highest front-month contract settlement since Feb. 26, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

February Brent crude BRN00, BRNG21, , the global benchmark, added 42 cents, or 0.8%, to $51.50 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe to log the highest finish since March 3.

Read: How a weaker dollar could help fuel a commodities boom in 2021

Sentiment has shrugged off slightly bearish monthly updates from OPEC, the EIA, and the IEA this week, said Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at Axi, in a note.

While all-clear signals point to gradual demand recovery throughout 2021, however, I worry about the red lockdown flags on the ground, whether too much vaccine optimism is in the price, and if stretched longs canweather any near-term headwinds, he said.

Crude was lifted Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported thatU.S. crude inventoriesfell by a larger-than-expected 3.1 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 11.

Meanwhile, Washington lawmakers were seen making progress toward a $900 billion package of economic relief.

The U.S. reported a record 247,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There were 113,090 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals on Wednesday, according to theCOVID Tracking Project, up from 112,816 on Tuesday, as hospitalizations reached a record for an 11th-straight day.

An advisory panel was widely expected on Thursday to recommend the Food and Drug Administration authorize a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA, +5.09%. If the FDA does so, it would be the second vaccine authorized by the FDA, joining the drug developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE, +0.50% and BioNTech SE BNTX, +0.61%, which saw rollout begin this week.

The only thing that could get in the way of oils rally is if any problems emerge with the coronavirus vaccine rollouts, Moya said.Transportation issues and some slowness in getting people vaccinated may start to raise doubts that a return to pre-pandemic life will happen by mid-fall.

Read: Why a COVID-19 relief package and vaccine wont be enough to boost U.S. gasoline demand

Back on Nymex, natural-gas futures finished lower after the Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas declined by 122 billion cubic feet for the week ended Dec. 11.

On average, the data were expected to show a drop of 127 billion cubic feet for the week, according to analysts polled by S&P Global Platts.

January natural gas NGF21, +1.44% lost 1.5% to $2.636 per million British thermal units.

Rounding out action on Nymex, January gasoline RBF21, +0.06% added 2.6% to $1.3881 a gallon and January heating oil HOF21, -0.12% edged up by 1.2% to $1.4952 a gallon.