Oil prices rose slightly on Thursday, inching above $75 a barrel, despite a stronger dollar, in seesaw trade inspired by gains on Wall Street due to positive job numbers and news of a rescue plan for Greece. US crude for March delivery rose 89 cents to $75.41 a barrel by 1:50 pm EST (1850 GMT). In London, Brent crude rose 59 cents to $73.13 a barrel.
"Basically, prices were following the dollar earlier and then, when equities started to rally, that brought in some buying," said Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover in New Canaan, Connecticut. US stocks climbed on news of a European Union plan to aid debt-ridden Greece as well as US data showing first-time jobless insurance applications fell more than expected last week. EU President Herman Van Rompuy reported an unprecedented deal to stave off a broader crisis in the 16-nation euro bloc.
But markets remained concerned about whether the aid would be enough to pull Greece out of fiscal crisis, and the euro slipped against the US dollar. The oil market's focus on Wall Street and the dollar may have been due, in part, to a delay in the US weekly inventory data from the Energy Information Administration, which traders scour for clues on demand in the world's top oil user.
"Part of the problem is very simple here. We have not had the Department of Energy (inventory data) out this week yet ... and, as a result, what we're seeing here is a lot of using the dollar and equities as a surrogate for oil information," he said.
Weekly EIA data, normally released on Wednesdays, was delayed until Friday due to snow in Washington. A report from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed crude inventories jumped by 7.2 million barrels to 337.6 million last week, against expectations of a rise of 1.5 million, and despite a drop in crude imports and weekly crude runs. Gasoline inventories also rose more than expected, climbing 1.6 million barrels to 228.8 million, exceeding analyst estimates of a 500,000-barrel build.