
“Inventories will be building in January, but this week I’m not sure yet,” said Clarence Chu, a trader with options dealer Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. “Partly also, from this morning the dollar has come off. The dollar is still higher on the day but it has pulled back a little bit.”
Crude oil for February delivery rose as much as 32 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $79.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $79.02 at 4:17 p.m. Singapore time. Yesterday, oil rose 10 cents to $78.87, the highest settlement since Nov. 18.
Oil has climbed 8.8 percent in the past five days and surged 77 percent this year on signs of a global economic recovery. Futures have tripled in the past decade.
“After strong gains over the past year, there’s a propensity to lock in profits and reposition for 2010,” said Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne. “Now, I think you’re going to see sideways movement.”

