Crude oil futures settled up Monday at $59 a barrel, recouping losses of about a dollar on the back of sharp gains in heating oil futures. Expectations of a drawdown in U.S. commercial crude inventories for the fourth straight week, reflecting supply disruptions from storms in the Gulf of Mexico, also lent support, AP reported. Benchmark light, sweet crude oil futures for September rose 35 cents to settle at $59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex heating oil futures for August settled at $1.6066 a gallon, up 2.47 cents, as speculators such as commodity funds assessed them as undervalued compared with crude and gasoline futures. Last week, heating oil was seen as the energy complex's weakest link.
