NEW YORK -- Crude tied a record high in New York Tuesday as traders appeared braced for another drop in the United States' oil supply.
NYMEX crude topped $55 per barrel on the eve of the closely watched weekly inventory reports that are issued Wednesday mornings.
December crude settled 63 cents higher on the day at $55.17 per barrel, a level last seen last Friday.
Although tight supplies of heating oil have been driving NYMEX higher in recent days, the November heating oil contract moved up less than a third of a cent to $1.568 per gallon. November gasoline climbed 1.5 cents to $1.412 per gallon.
Natural gas jumped 51 cents on NYMEX for no obvious reason, although the rally could have been due to 11th-hour trading on the November contract, which ends Wednesday. Weather forecasts for the first week in November call for generally normal or above-normal temperatures covering most of the nation.
