Energy Funds Rally As Crude Ends Slide

Other than a few Mexican state-owned offshore platforms, Hurricane Dean failed to knock out Gulf of Mexico oil drilling operations.

However, we are not out of the woods yet. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed earlier this month that it still places the chance of an above-normal 2007 Atlantic hurricane season at 85%.

So oil traders, with one eye on the most recent tropical disturbance, arrested the late-July/early August decline in the price of crude oil. Bullish petroleum inventory figures also contributed to the move.

The top performing fund this week, the United States Oil Fund LP (USO Quote), rose 5.41%, buying futures contracts to approximate the performance of the spot price of crude oil. That's a pretty good performance for this exchange-traded fund when you consider that the spot price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil added just 4.83% over the same period. ...