USO - Oil Prices Up As Iran Tests Ballistic Missiles OPEC Raises Economic Forecasts | Benzinga
Oil prices rose on Tuesday pushing up average gasoline prices at the pump on concerns supply could be disrupted as Iran tested a ballistic missile in the Gulf of Oman, while demand hopes were led by OPEC raising its economic forecasts.
Nymex WTI, the U.S. benchmark crude oil futures contract, was up 1.8% in afternoon trading at $78.27 a barrel — its seventh-consecutive daily gain. Closing in on the $80-a-barrel mark would take it to its highest level since November.
Brent crude, the European benchmark, was up 1.2% at $82.97 a barrel, while the United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of light-sweet crude, climbed 1% to $72.80.
Iran Launches Missiles
Iran said on Tuesday that it had launched long-range ballistic missiles from one of its warships in the Gulf of Oman for the first time, firing two projectiles capable of striking targets within a range of 1,700 kilometers, or 1,050 miles.
The missile, according to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (IRGC), traveled 750km, before ...