Oil prices rose above $71 a barrel Thursday as investors weighed evidence of weak U.S. crude demand against the effects of a falling dollar.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for January delivery was up 36 cents to $71.03 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $1.95 to settle at $70.67 on Wednesday.
Oil has fallen about 13 percent since reaching its 2009 high of $82 a barrel in October as traders mull evidence that U.S. demand for crude and its products remains weak despite an overall economic recovery.
"The latest oil consumption figures in large parts of the world are still far off from indicating a recovery, despite all the upward revisions of GDP outlooks," said analysts at JBC Energy in Vienna, noting that demand for diesel fuel was weaker than for gasoline.
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