Oil jumps on weak dollar, manufacturing strength

Benchmark crude for September delivery rose 3 percent, or $2.13 to settle at $71.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the third straight day of substantial increases on the energy futures markets and the first time in a month that crude traded above $70.

Retail gasoline prices rose overnight yet again.

Natural gas, a major source of power generation, spiked by more than 9 percent on a day when both China and the United States reported stronger manufacturing activity.

Production from U.S. manufacturers jumped to its highest level in more than two years last month with new orders to restock businesses that had cleared inventories as the economy slumped.

The decline in manufacturing has been slowing since December and officials with the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said Monday that signs of growth in the sector could emerge as early as next month.

Manufacturing in China expanded at its fastest clip in a year, according to a survey by Hong Kong brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.

Still, crude has been rising for the past several weeks on the downward trend for the U.S. dollar, Kazinform cites Trend Capital.

See www.capital-en.trend.az  for full version.