Crude Marches Past $73: Oil Alert

Updated with recent oil prices and stock quotes.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- With several reports citing a renewed sense of economic recovery bubbling about, oil futures rose above $73 Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract for November delivery of benchmark crude was surging $1.78 at $73.55 a barrel in the morning, rising after the front-month contract added 2.6% last week to settle at $71.77 by Friday.

Looking ahead to this week, investors will be eyeing a bouquet of earnings reports coming from several industry bellwethers. Major banks like Goldman Sachs(GS) and Bank of America(BAC) will report, along with diversified leviathan General Electric(GE), medical drug and supply maker Johnson & Johnson(JNJ), and tech leaders Intel(INTC) and Google(GOOG).

Major integrated oil majors finished Friday in mixed territory, though all were tracking higher on Monday morning. Exxon Mobil(XOM) and Chevron(CVX) were adding 1% and 1.5%, each, just after the opening bell.

ConocoPhillips(COP), which lost 1.2% by the closing bell on Friday, was gaining 1.8% in the early going on Monday.

-- Written by Sung Moss in New York

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