Mon, Oct 20 2008, 14:06 GMT
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NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures bounced

higher on Monday on expectations that OPEC oil ministers will move to cut output at their Friday meeting and on higher global stock markets which bolstered credit confidence.

"Crude and products futures are higher ... after comments by several OPEC members over the weekend made it apparent that a production cut of at least 1 million (bpd) is the likely result of the extraordinary meeting of cartel members that will take place on Friday in Vienna," Addison Armstrong, analyst at Tradition Energy, wrote in a research note.

"Looks like we may have an 'abstract' bottom for now," said

a NYMEX broker in New York. "Panic selling may be drying up

both in commodities and equities. OPEC may cut, but will it be

enough?"

PRICES

* On the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:32 a.m. EDT (1332 GMT), November crude was up $1.73, or 2.41 percent, at $73.58 a barrel, trading from $71.81 to $74.28. The November contract expires on Tuesday. Last Thursday's $68.57 intraday bottom was lowest front-month crude price since $67.07 was struck on June 27, 2007. Despite a $2 rise on Friday, for the week the contract fell $5.85 or 7.53 percent.

* In London, December Brent was up $1.74, or 2.5 percent, at $71.34 a barrel, trading from $70.00 to $71.95.

* NYMEX November RBOB rose 4.15 cents, or 2.49 percent, to $1.7076 a gallon, trading from $1.6691 to $1.7203.

* NYMEX November heating oil rose 5.86 cents, or 2.75 percent, to $2.1915 a gallon, trading from $2.1333 to $2.1985.

* The heating oil crack spread was at $18.33 a barrel, and the RBOB crack spread was in negative territory at minus $2.02.

TECHNICALS

NYMEX crude 10-day/20-day moving average: $80.72/$91.94

Technical support/resistance:

NYMEX crude: $68.90/$75.00

NYMEX heating oil: $1.9875 $2.2975

NYMEX RBOB: $1.5820/$1.8615

For a report on oil market technicals click

MARKET NEWS

* OPEC might not need a hefty oil output cut when it meets on Friday, an OPEC source told the Saudi-owned al-Hayata newspaper, as others in OPEC talked of a possible cut of over a million barrels per day, perhaps in stages.

* An OPEC output cut may hurt economic recovery, the International Energy Agency's head said.

* Russia will not discuss oil output cuts with OPEC's visiting secretary general this week, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said.

* World stocks put in strong gains as investors took comfort in global efforts to prop up the banking system.

* China's GDP rate slipped into single digits in the third quarter for the first time in at least four years.

* Crude oil speculators on the NYMEX shifted to a net short

position in the week to Oct. 14, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported on Friday.

* FACTBOX-OPEC comments ahead of Friday's meeting

* For a list of top energy news stories, click

(Reporting by Robert Gibbons; editing by Jim Marshall)

Keywords: MARKETS ENERGY NYMEX

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