NYMEX Light oil price trading up around $73

NYMEX Light oil price is trading close to $73 a barrel Monday as investors looked to US corporate earnings reports this week for signs of economic recovery. Benchmark crude for November delivery was up $1.01 cents at $72.78 in noon European electronic trading on the NYMEX.

Crude investors will be eyeing third quarter company results and forecasts for the rest of the year for clues about the strength of the US economy. Top banks JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. report this week along with Google Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., Intel Corp., IBM Corp., General Electric Co., and Johnson & Johnson.

A more optimistic crude oil demand forecast by the IEA on Friday helped boost trader confidence. The IEA, which advises oil-consuming countries, said demand will likely reach 86.1 million barrels a day in 2010, up 1.7 percent from this year.

On Sunday, Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Ahmed Al Abdullah Al Sabah told the state news agency that an oil price range between $60 and $80 a barrel is acceptable, echoing earlier remarks by Saudi Arabia.

The two Middle Eastern countries are members of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about a third of the world’s oil production.

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