Crude Oil Prices Edge Higher

Light, sweet crude oil futures rallied slightly Tuesday, but Brent contracts continued dropping and the rest of the energy complex was having a mixed session.

As the day wound down at the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas crude was up 95 cents at $88.76 a barrel. Brent, however, was dropping $7.15 to $83.10.

Heating oil was up 1 cent at $2.48 a gallon, while reformulated gasoline was off 3 cents to $2.02 a gallon. Natural gas was losing 4 cents at $6.80 per million British thermal units.

Turning to stocks, Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote - Cramer on XOM - Stock Picks) was up 2.5%, and Chevron (CVX Quote - Cramer on CVX - Stock Picks) was slipping 0.4%. ConocoPhillips (COP Quote - Cramer on COP - Stock Picks) edged down 0.2%.

Refiners Tesoro (TSO Quote - Cramer on TSO - Stock Picks) and Valero (VLO Quote - Cramer on VLO - Stock Picks) gave back 5% and 2%, respectively. The U.S. Oil (USO Quote - Cramer on USO - Stock Picks) ETF, which tracks crude prices, ticked up 0.5%.

Elsewhere in commodities, gold was up $1 to $883 an ounce, and silver was adding 4 cents to $11.42 an ounce.