Commodities : Energy Futures Prices Surge

Energy futures prices surged Wednesday with crude oil settling above $15 a barrel for the first time in more than two months.

Leaded gasoline advanced 2 cents a gallon, the limit move for daily trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Several heating oil contracts showed similar limit moves.

Some analysts saw the rise as confirmation that crude oil could be moving into a range of $17 to $19 a barrel. Early last month it slumped below $10.

One explanation for the runup was a report released late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute, indicating a continuing good demand for gasoline. But some analysts were uneasy with this reasoning.

“Gasoline stocks were down a little over 2.5 million barrels (from the week earlier), but the market sort of expected this,” said Richard Marose, an analyst in Chicago with Geldermann Inc.

Nonetheless, European markets were bidding the prices up before the American exchanges opened and this got the ball rolling, he said.