Oil prices hovered near $69 a barrel Tuesday. By midday in Europe, benchmark crude for October delivery was up 16 cents at $69.02 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday, the contract fell 43 cents to settle at $68.86. The euro fell Tuesday to $1.4588 from $1.4614 the previous day, the British pound was down to $1.6507 from $1.6574 and the dollar held above 91 yen. In other Nymex trading, gasoline for October was steady at $1.7430 a gallon and heating oil dropped 0.37 cent to $1.7385 a gallon. Natural gas surged 14.7 cents to $3.444 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude was fell 19 cents to $67.25 on the ICE Futures exchange, according to a report of The Associated Press.
