Crude futures settled higher after a day of choppy trading Monday on a stronger euro and gains in equities.
NYMEX September crude futures settled up 80 cents to $92.20/barrel after reaching an intraday high of $92.33/b -- a two-week high for the front-month contract.
ICE September Brent settled up 61 cents to $109.55/b.
Crude futures were lower in early trade as investors took profits following a Friday's gains. But a rumor that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been killed sparked a rally in the financial markets that trickled down to the oil complex, said Matt Smith, commodity analyst at Summit Energy.
The rumor, although later found to be untrue, sparked risk-on trade flow with a rally in the euro and equities supporting crude futures.
"The rally was kick-started by a false rumor, but there was nothing really specific to crude, just more on general economic sentiment," Smith said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 73 points by the NYMEX settle, with the S&P 500 up nearly 8 points. The euro was trading around $1.2416, up 31 points.
Technically, the near-term outlook for NYMEX front-month crude remains supportive until the contract breaches $83.65/b, said Mike Fitzpatrick of Kilduff Group.
"While the decline from $110.55 appears to have have finished at $77.28, the rally through July into August needs to break new ground above $93.25 to stay alive," he said.
On the downside, strong support should be seen below $74.95/b and above the 61.8% retracement of the $33.20/b move to $114.83/b at $64.38/b, Fitzpatrick said.
In products, NYMEX September RBOB settled 88 points lower at $2.9222/gal and September heating oil settled 1.48 cents higher at $2.9409/gal.
RBOB was the bearish segment of the complex after several refineries restarted following a slew of upsets over the past two weeks.
Valero Energy was in the process of restarting downstream units at its 135,000 b/d refinery in Meraux, Louisiana, Monday following a fire on July 22 that shut all units at the facility.
A downed crude unit is expected to be back in operation by the end of the month.
Valero also began the restart Monday of a fluid catalytic cracker at its 170,000 b/d Benicia, California refinery (See story, 1417 GMT).
Mike Guido, managing director of energy markets at Macquarie, said weaker price action in the Chicago physical market also weighed on RBOB futures.
"Otherwise I am not hearing much else," he said.
The Chicago CBOB cash differential was down at least 24 cents/gal Monday morning as more supply moved into the region via pipelines, while expectations were high that regional refinery issues would be resolved within weeks.
RBOB futures as well as the physical gasoline grade had rallied in recent weeks after upsets were seen at BP's 407,000 b/d refinery in Whiting, Indiana, and Citgo's 167,000 b/d refinery in Lemont, Illinois.
A coker at the Whiting refinery has been down since a fire on July 24. A restart is anticipated within two to four weeks.
Citgo's FCC unit was expected be back within a week after it shut the unit on July 29 due to an equipment issue.
