Oil above $50

Crude prices rocket higher on government program to buy up its own debt. Oil touches $50 for first time since January.

LONDON (Reuters) — Oil rallied to $50 a barrel Thursday after a move by the Federal Reserve to buy government bonds on a large scale hit the dollar and revived hopes the U.S. economy could soon begin its recovery.

The Fed announced Wednesday it would pump another $1 trillion into the U.S. economy by buying long-term government debt for the first time since the 1960s and by expanding purchases of mortgage bonds.


“It’s a combination of a drop in the U.S. dollar and the Fed’s move that has pushed up oil prices,” said David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

“But I suspect more of it is probably on hopes that U.S. policy stimulus would help turn the economy around, or at least stabilize it.”

CNN