Oil price rises above $100

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As investors hope ECB meeting will steer Euro zone out of crisis | By Eki Toju

The price of Oil rose above 100 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, as investors hoped a European Central Bank policy meeting later would steer the euro zone out of crisis.

Brent crude surged to an intra-day high of 100.43 dollars a barrel before easing back to 100.31dollars — a gain of 1.47dollars. U.S. crude climbed 1.16 dollars to 85.45 dollars.

“A slight brightening of sentiment on the financial markets and a weaker U.S. dollar are putting wind in the sails of oil prices this morning,” read a Commerzbank research note.

The market will closely monitor Wednesday’s meeting of the European Central Bank, widely seen as the only institution capable of immediate action on behalf of the euro zone.

Crude also got a lift from a pick-up in growth in the vast U.S. services sector, a welcome relief after recent disappointing economic data.

Brent has struggled to recover from a near 25 percent drop in oil prices over the past three months.

“We probably need to see a more significant rally out of this level to be more confident we have a corrective rally going on,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

“We have gone from pricing in a potential supply shortage because of the situation in Iran … to a market that is more than adequately supplied.”

The darkening outlook for the world economy has also sparked hopes the United States, the top oil-consuming nation, would introduce new stimulus measures to combat the gloom.

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