Thursday, October 4, 2012

The price of oil is higher after tensions rose between Syria and Turkey.

Oil rose to $89.21, a jump of $1.06, or 1.2 percent, in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Thursday's rise follows a steep decline of 4 percent on Wednesday.

The increase in prices came as Turkey's military fired on targets in Syria for the second day. Prices also got a boost from economic reports showing improvement in the U.S. services sector, and a modest gain in private sector hiring.

Natural gas rose slightly, despite a government report showing that more of it went into storage last week than analysts had expected. Prices rose a half-percent to $3.412 per 1,000 cubic feet.