Crude Oil Rises 2.1%

Crude oil for March delivery reverses a weeklong decline, adding $1.54, or 2.1%, to settle at $74.43 a barrel.
By David Moss ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Better-than-expected earnings from

Exxon Mobil

(XOM) - Get Report

helped lift crude oil prices and energy-related stocks on Monday. A surge in global manufacturing activity also added momentum.

Crude oil for March delivery added $1.54, or 2.1%, reversing a weeklong tumble to settle at $74.43 a barrel.

A stronger-than-expected jump in the Institute for Supply Management's

manufacturing index in January spurred a rally in equity and commodity markets, giving markets a lift after January proved to be the worst month for stocks in nearly a year.

Consumer spending ticked higher in December, albeit at a slower-than-expected pace, while personal incomes rose 0.4%.

But not every Monday morning metric was lifting sentiment. Construction spending continued to struggle in December, sliding by a sharp 1.2% despite estimates calling for a more slender 0.5% drop.

Supply concerns in Nigeria propped up prices in the morning. Reports swirled that some flow stations for

Royal Dutch Shell

( RDS) were shut down after rebel saboteurs caused a pipeline leak.

Although Dow component

Exxon Mobil recorded a loss in its refining unit and an overall profit decline of 23%, the company's fourth-quarter profit of $1.27 a share easily exceeded analysts' expectations for earnings of $1.19 a share. Shares were among the

Dow's

top performers, gaining $1.75, or 2.7%, to close the session at $66.18.

Shares were rising alongside their peers as well. The NYSE Oil Index rose 2.5%.

Chevron

(CVX) - Get Report

shares added $1.46, or 2%, to $73.58, while ConocoPhillips ended the day $1.07 higher, or up by 2.2%, at $49.07.

Marathon Oil

(MRO) - Get Report

revealed plans to cut back on capital spending by 17% to $5.1 billion in 2010. Marathon said it will focus instead on its upstream business and will reduce downstream spending by 53%. The company, which is scheduled to report its earnings before Tuesday's opening bell, saw shares close 84 cents higher, or 2.8%, at $30.65. Analysts are projecting earnings of 51 cents a share.

BP

(BP) - Get Report

, which is also slated to report early Tuesday, closed the session ahead by $1.11, or 2%, at $57.23.. Analysts expect the company to post a fourth-quarter profit of $1.51 a share.

The

U.S. Oil Fund

(USO) - Get Report

ETF added $1.08, or 3%, to $36.72 while the

PowerShares DB Oil Fund

(DBO) - Get Report

ETF moved 68 cents, or 2.7% higher, to close at $25.82.

The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly inventory report late Tuesday. Analysts polled by Platts are anticipating a crude oil drawdown of 1 million barrels and a 1.2 million-barrel decline to distillates. Gasoline inventories are projected to add 1.5 million barrels while refinery utilization is slated to increase by a fourth of a percentage point to 78.75% for the week ended Jan. 29.

As weather forecasts called for a cold snap, the March natural gas contract soared 5.9% higher, adding 30 cents to $5.43 per million British thermal units.

The

U.S. Natural Gas Fund

(UNG) - Get Report

also surged 5.3%, to close at $9.80.

Western Gas

(WES) - Get Report

announced plans to buy

Anadarko Petroleum's

(APC) - Get Report

Wyoming-based midstream natural gas assets for $254.4 million. Western Gas shares surged 3.4%, to end at $20.66.

Anadarko, which is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings of 3 cents a share after Monday's closing bell, finished the day's session up by $1.32, or 2.1%, to close at $65.10.

Elsewhere on the Nymex, March delivery heating oil futures settled ahead by 4 cents, or 2.2%, to settle at $1.95 a gallon, while the March reformulated gasoline contract added nearly 2 cents, or 1%, to $1.93 a gallon.

--Written by Sung Moss and Melinda Peer in New York

.

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