NEW YORK -- Crude futures rose above $52 on Monday, as traders responded to speculation that U.S. refineries might be unable to match demand in the latter half of the year.
With little economic news to direct the markets, light, sweet crude futures for June delivery hovered around $51 before shooting up $1.07 to settle at $52.03 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"There's an old Wall Street adage: Never sell in a quiet market," said Ed Silliere, the vice president of risk management at Energy Merchant LLC in New York.
He said crude futures began rallying late in the day as speculators and day traders - many of whom believe that crude will reach $60 or above - took over the low-volume market.
Unleaded gasoline rose 1.13 cents to $1.4873 a gallon, while heating oil rose less than a cent to $1.4402 a gallon.
On London's International Petroleum Exchange, June Brent crude futures climbed 52 cents to $51.29 a barrel.
Nymex crude prices, which have been highly volatile in the past weeks, are down more than $6 from their all-time high of $58.28 on April 4.
"For the market to continue its rally up, it needs to be reassured that the economy's recovering," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "We're going to be very macroeconomically focused on this crude oil market."
Some analysts remain concerned over U.S. refineries' ability to boost output before summer - the traditional driving season in the United States - while also looking toward its heating oil production for winter.
The United States is the world's largest consumer of crude oil.
"Market bulls scoff at every bearish signal in the data because they are convinced the second half will be tight, no matter how much oil OPEC pours onto the market in advance," said Energyintel analyst Peter Kemp.
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